Ranma 12: A Ward of a Goddess
by viktor2m
Summary: Ranma is six years old and traveling with his father. Nodoka is depressed. She makes a phone call, reaching the earth assistance line. Peorth arrives and a wish is granted, binding Peorth as Ranma's guardian spirit. Ten years later Ranma and Genma visit the cursed springs, and well, not everything stays the same. Chapter 6 up !
1. Prologue

**Ranma 1/2: A Ward of a Goddess**

 **Disclaimer:** The following is a fan written parody. Ranma ½ belongs to Rumiko Takahashi, Viz Media, Studio Deen, Shogakukan and Madman Entertainment. Oh My Goddess! belongs to Kōsuke Fujishima, Kodansha, Dark Horse Comics and Madman Entertainment. Other IP used have their respective owners as well, I do not own characters nor events and they are used without permission. Support the official release, and don't sue me.

[Author Note:

The following is an Alternate Universe Ranma ½ fan fic. It crosses a bit with Oh My Goddess!. Characters, time line and events are changed for the purpose of the story created. Dramatis Personae will act out of character when plot calls for them to do so. Both original characters and original stories will be included.]

 **Prologue**

 _Between the time_

 _when the sands buried the last E.T cartridge,_

 _and the rise of the Itunes,_

 _there was an age undreamed of._

 _And onto this, Ranma,_

 _cursed to change into girl with every_

 _splash of cold water upon his troubled head._

 _It is I, his chronicler,_

 _who alone can tell thee of his saga._

 _Let me tell you of the days of martial arts adventure !_

For every story there is a moment, or perhaps a place where it begins. Sometimes it's a space station drifting through the void, abandoned for a long time. Other times it's a submarine, carrying orders that can change the course of war. There are also stories that begin with a wosh-wosh sound, one that brings hope to the oppressed, and fear to the oppressors. All to often it's a dark and stormy night that heralds the beginning.

This story however begins on an warm afternoon in Itabashi, a special ward of Tokyo Metropolis, inside a moderate Japanese house. It's a small one family home, with a little garden behind it. There was something wrong with this building. A house like that should have many occupants, yet it was almost all but empty. There was no commotion inside, no sounds of family getting ready for dinner, the place was almost all but quiet. It didn't feel like a house, more like a shrine, or a temple and it was currently dedicated to sorrow.

There was only a single person inside, a brown haired, attractive woman in her mid twenties. The only sound that pierced the silence was her sob. She cried as only a mother could, she cried for her son, for foolishness of her husband, and finally she cried because she was afraid. It was a kind of fear that is known only to parents, the gut-wrenching horror of being unable to protect ones child anymore.

Afternoon slowly turned into evening, when she cried the last tear, as her eyes ran dry. When one has no sorrow to turn to, he has to give in to other emotions. Since there was little hope in her situation she turned to the next best thing. Slowly anger rose in her.

"Damn you !" She shouted in frustration "Damn you for everything !"

She thought about everything that happened. Her beloved son, and her stupid husband. He was really set on making a great martial artist out of little boy and she allowed him for that. Her husband took him on those training trips, sometimes for two weeks, sometimes for a month. Yet nothing gave her any premonition about the tragedy that the last one was. The idiot that she married tried to train her son in something called _Neko-ken_ and whatever happened left her six years old son scarred for life. Her little boy, he used to rather like cats, but now even mentioning them around send the boy into an attack of fear. Not only that, but it got really ugly if her son were to really meet with the source of his fear. She still shivered with fear on what happened that day. She wanted to comfort her boy, to end this training foolishness, yet somehow her husband managed to charm her, worm his way around. The mother didn't want to loose her child, but the wife was weak and he left on another training trip with their son.

Her gaze was drawn to the table. Among many pieces of junk was one very important thing. A piece of paper. It had her signature, as well as one of her husband. It was a contract, a _seppuku_ pledge. An idea born out of desperation, a way to control the man she married.

"Look, this is his only shield" heard the room as she grabbed the contract "He took him _Kami-sama_ only knows where, or for how long, and only thing I could think of is this!"

She tossed the _seppuku_ contract back on table. It was actually completely worthless and she knew it, for no court in Japan would make anyone hold to vague terms written in it. Luckily her husband was born with incurable, and hopefully non heritable flaw. He was an idiot and he really believed that the could be forced into ceremonial suicide.

The brown haired Japanese woman sat back on the couch. What she required at the moment was someones support. Crying alone like that was certainly not healthy. One thing would make her feel a little better, some shoulder to cry into, someone to share the pain with. Sadly her best friend, Kimiko Tendo was again at the hospital, as doctors were trying to establish why she was so exhausted. Her decision was to go call someone, so she went to the phone and while trying to think of anyone suitable she mindlessly began to dial a number.

„Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, My Dear" She heard a some kind of jingle in phone as someone picked her call „Earth assistance hotline here. We've been absolutely dying for your call, we're sending someone to take care of you on-site." She heard a click.

"Hello?" She tried to talk to the phone "Who's there ? This is some kind of blue line ?"

The house suddenly begun shaking a little bit. A small earthquake like that was a commonplace in Japan. She hang up, and went to the living room to check for damage. There was none, except that one of the cupboards was lying on the floor. A camera that dropped from the shelf suddenly produced a beam of light. It hit the ceiling, forming some kind of strange partly transparent circle. To her surprise she saw that someone went through the circle, first legs, then body. The beam disappeared and in it's place a young, stunningly beautiful young woman arrived . She was dressed in a rather revealing skirt, and was wearing what looked like a orange harness. Her hair had a dark brown color, and while part of it was cut short rest was gathered in a single long tail. On her forehead she had a single, large, Hindu like marking that looked like a diamond. The only way to describe her was unearthly. No woman in existence could have such a perfect proportions and looks. She appeared more like an otherworldly being than a human.

"Hello there" the angelic woman said with a beautiful, melodic voice, that made every word sound as it was a part of a song "So Pleased to meet you. I'm earth assistance hotline... Goddess first class, type two, unlimited... Peorth."

At that very moment the brown haired one gave a great credit to all Japanese woman, as she managed not to faint.

"I heard you cry and Lo! I descend from Heaven" Peorth continued "It is I who shall grant your" heart's desire."

"Heart's de-desire ?" The Japanese woman was having some problems with speaking coherently "I don't think I understand ? This is some kind of Candid Camera, right ?"

"I assure you this is neither a joke nor a dream" The goddess smiled at the woman "The agency that send me here specializes at helping people like you. Since we received a system access request on your behalf you are now entitled to a single wish."

"A wish ? Like in fairy tale ?" She was absolutely amazed at the newcomer. It still felt like a part of a dream.

"Of course, for anything at all !" Said Peorth, as she dealt with customers finding chance of a wish rather strange quite often. She blamed it on the Age of Reason "Whether it's becoming the richest woman in Japan, or total annihilation of everything, you can make anything you heart desires become true."

She started to think, if this was really trur she could change everything, get her son back. Yet that was not going to help, the idiot could either charm her again, or simply steal the boy. What she really wanted is to have her six year old son safe, and protected, whenever he could be.

Some say that destiny is something we are born with. That it's set and we cannot hope to change our fate. Other say that we reap what we sow, and we make our own karma. Right now a mother held her son's destiny in her hand. Her decision would forge the road that her son were to walk.

"Okay, I might as well make my wish." She said turning to the goddess.

"Oh you have already decided on one ?" Asked Peorth. Usually people required more than a single moment to think of what they want.

"I wish that a goddess like you..." Her voice sounded like steel "...to always be my son's guardian spirit !"

Peorth looked at her for second.

"I'm afraid that a wish like..." she started.

But at that very moment her eyes went white, there was a loud humming sound coming from everywhere at once and beam shoot out from goddess forehead right through the roof. She started to float few centimeters over floor as furniture and small items from all around the room started dancing like grabbed by a cyclone. Then the goddess simply disappeared.

Japanese woman stood there for moment looking at the destruction in the room and a hole in the roof. Then the phone rang.

"Yes ?" She asked as she answered the call.

„Earth assistance hotline customer service here." She heard to her surprise „We are happy to inform that system access request status has been changed to: Wish Granted. We hope that you are satisfied with service provided on your behalf."

She was standing in her living room. Sorrow and anger were fading into past. She felt something new, something she had forgotten. For right now, first time in forever, Nodoka Saotome had hope.

 **XXX**

It was getting late. Evening was almost over and the nights chill was starting to get it's hold over the land. The sun was starting it's journey into dusk.

A man, perhaps thirty years old, dressed in a white _gi_ was making his way to the top of the hill. He carried a rather large traveling backpack. He had a large, bushy, jet black hair. Right at the base of the hill a six year old boy was trying to carry his own, much smaller back pack. He was crying, as he was hungry, tired and missing his mom.

"Ranma ! Get a hold of yourself" Shouted the man, as he turned around "We don't have a whole night, we must set up a camp, so stop crying and start marching. You're not a weak girl, so don't go acting like one !"

Genma Saotome walked a few more steps and he started to set up a tent. That would give his son some time to catch up. He was really glad he had managed to snatch him from Nodoka. His wife would turn him weak. Women were no god at raising sons. Ranma had potential, with right teaching he would become the greatest martial artist in his generation. He just needed a good training. Genma almost ruined everything with his stupid _Neko-ken_ idea, so he decided that next special training he would first test on himself, but other than that, he would remove any, and all potential weakness from Ranma.

Down below something happened The air next to young Ranma shimmered for a second as goddess Peorth arrived. Completely invisible to a human eye, with a voice that they could register only as a whisper on a wind she was ready to become a guardian spirit to the boy. She looked at her ward for a while, then a smile arrived on her face.

"What's with all those tears, dear ?" was here question as she knelt right before Ranma "Here, let me wipe them."

Then she hugged him. She knew that from now on she would everything for the boy. That even without works of system there were nothing that could separate the goddess from her ward.

"Don't worry dear" She sung into Ranma's ear "From now and always I'll be by your side. It'll be like having a big sis to take care of you."

Genma finished setting up their tent, and he turned around, to see how far his son had managed to climb. To his surprise not only Ranma was already at top, he was gathering wood for fire.

"Good." he said "I see you've stopped crying and you're starting to act like a man, there is still hope for you, boy."

Genma was not a very perceptive man, so he had no chance to note the change that happened to Ranma. With soft whisper of wind a sense of peace had entered the youngster, and with warm embrace all his fears were chased away. No longer was the boy alone.

On the very next day they continued to walk. They've met some people on the road, yet every passerby saw only a middle-aged man, wearing a white _gi_ walking and a young boy desperately trying to keep up with his father. None of them gave the pair a second look.

Except for a single woman, wearing _miko_ outfit, who kept watching after the three of them for a long while. She was quite surprised as she saw that right next to the boy a goddess was floating, watching his every step with great care. As one of few and rare people with witchsight she knew that it's better not to interfere into matter of gods and spirits. So after she lost her sight of them, she simply continued her way.


	2. How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love

**Ranma 1/2: A Ward of a Goddess**

 **Disclaimer:** The following is a fan written parody. Ranma ½ belongs to Rumiko Takahashi, Viz Media, Studio Deen, Shogakukan and Madman Entertainment. Oh My Goddess! belongs to Kōsuke Fujishima, Kodansha, Dark Horse Comics and Madman Entertainment. Other IP used have their respective owners as well, I do not own characters and events and they are used without permission. Support the official release, and don't sue me.

 **Chapter 1**

 **Dr. Peorth or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Cats**

 _Destiny is a journey, and it has to begin with a first step._

 _It's just a matter of right place and right time._

 _All that has happened before is just you, getting ready to face fate._

Realities are like bubbles, spreading one from another, they differ because of a single stroke of wing of a butterfly. While it may appear strange, according to chaos theory that small, peaceful insect is capable of changing realities, causing time travel paradoxes and raising hurricanes. The further down the line you go in each bubble the greater divergence becomes, yet there are always some constants that never change. Sometimes it's the girl, the lighthouse and the man. But that's a completely different story, for a myriad of realities centered on Ranma always come here to _Bayankala_ Mountain range, south of Mount _Kensei_ , in _Qinghai_ Province. The divergence those not matter, for there will always be a boy, a spring and the fateful splash.

The morning mist was already gone and cloudless sky promised a sunny noon. But right here one would expect something altogether different. It was not a kind of weather one would suspect of such a place. It should be gloomy, rainy and cold, nature itself should be warning about coming in here, not inviting. Yet nothing in the air was telling what this valley was, there was no hint in aura that this was a place most accursed. For this was one of most infamous training grounds of China, _Jusenkyo_.

A hut stood near to the valley's entrance. It was small one, single large room and a single bedroom, separated in two by a white sheet, with simple bathroom, ideal for it's two occupants. One of them, a Chinese man, perhaps of forty years was just stepping out. He decided that a day like this one called for some relax. A hammock in shade, something to drink, his favorite pipe, some light snacks and a good lecture, those were the things he needed the most. He picked up newest copy of „Cursed Training Ground" magazine and as he was getting ready to spend a wonderful day he heard two people talking. He sighed, this was typical, you can sit bored for months, but as soon as you have something to do guests arrive. But since duty comes before small pleasure he put his _mao_ cap on and went to greet the visitors. For the man, known only as _Jusenkyo_ Guide took his work very seriously.

He found that his guests were two man. First one was in his early forties, rather stocky, completely bald and wearing glasses. The second one was a teenager, perhaps sixteen years old. The boy was really well build, quite muscular with long hair gathered in loose ponytail. He was handsome and as he walked muscles played under skin in way that would leave most girls of his age with a need of a quick cold shower. Both of them carried large backpacks, and were dressed in white _Gi_. There was something more however. _Jusenkyo_ Guide spent most of his life near powerful magic and he felt like there was some other presence there, he couldn't really place it, but it was something odd. Perhaps is was that both of them carried the air of serious martial artists around.

"Welcome honorable guests." The guide greeted them in mandarin „I'm known as _Jusenkyo_ Guide and it is my duty to inform you about many perils of..."

"Do you speak Japanese ?" Genma interrupted. You could say many good things... you could say some good... amongst endless list of his flaws was the fact that the martial artist had all the social grace of an elephant with a hangover.

"Yes, sir" The Chinese man answered, mildly irritated " _Jusenkyo_ Guide know Japanese."

"Great, we came here to train" Said Genma "Which way are the famous training grounds of _Jusenkyo_ ?"

"Here sir." Answered the guide, pointing with his palm "Is legendary training grounds of accursed springs."

Instantly Genma rushed forward. He gained quite a speed, eager to begin training.

"Come on Ranma !" He shouted.

"Right behind ya, Pops" answered the boy.

"No Sir !" Shouted Jusenkyo Guide running after the pair of martial artists "This place very dangerous !"

The Chinese man stopped for a second as heard something next to the hut. It sounded suspiciously like someone was banging his head against the wall. Since however there was no one there he decided that's it was far more important to stop his two guests before they do something irreversible.

Peorth slowly floated behind them. With every passing day she kept discovering endless pits of Genma's stupidity. It was really sad that he kept surprising her even after ten years she was Ranma's ward. Normal person would stop to think what actually the guide meant by accursed, yet the idiot rushed onward, dragging his son behind him. Come to think of it goddess heard the name _Jusenkyo_ before, she just couldn't remember what was wrong with the place.

 **XXX**

This could be a beautiful resort. Quiet and serene. Hundred natural springs filled most of the valley. Bamboo poles sprout everywhere, from each of the springs whether it was the smallest one or the largest. It looked like a forest, growing out of lakes. One could dance, jumping from pole to pole through whole of _Jusenkyo_. He would need to be very careful however. One mistake would end with splash in water. For every single spring held a tragic, very tragic story and cursed trainings grounds really liked to share with those that visited them.

"This place isn't so impressive" said Ranma. But the boy could be excused, he had no knowledge, or ability to feel how powerful, magical and dangerous the place was. His father on the other hand should know better. But that role fell to Genma Saotome, so putting it simply, all was lost.

Peorth sat on one of nearby stones. She rather enjoyed the sight before her. Her ward has really grown up in those ten years she was his guardian. He used to be a small boy, now he was becoming a young man. Ranma was doing his warm up exercises. He was in really prime condition, an wonderful example of what life on road and constant training could change a young man into. If the training was safe, sane and responsible, that is. But the training that Ranma had was nothing like that. The fact that boy was able to walk, talk and actually fight was a miracle carried every single night by a certain goddess. Genma's training methods included things like throwing hornet nest at his son, to increase his blocking skill or tying Ranma and throwing him into lake to give him swimming lessons, or the training that gave him ability to dodge attacks while asleep, she still cringed at the memory of that particular exercise. If anyone found out what he really put the teenage boy through, Ranma's father would be arrested in sixty three countries, got himself a life time prison in another forty seven, would be punished by firing squad in five and he would be revered as a national hero in North Korea. There was also the problem of Genma stealing his son food to keep him always on guard that carried the risk of malnutrition. Every evening however there was someone ready to help the boy, tend his bruises, heal his scars, and take care that none of his _sensei_ ideas could cripple Ranma. There were however limits to how much Peorth could achieve. The wording of Nodoka's wish made her a guardian spirit. She could do very little to prevent the damage, she could only help in it's healing. But the physical abuse Ranma took was one thing. Genma gave an equal amount of mental one. Scars that form in psyche don't heal that easily. They actually don't, not without some real help. This was what Peorth regretted most. While she could keep her ward in prime physical condition she was pained to watch that Ranma was growing into egoistical, misogynist jerk, slowly becoming like his father. The boy would have issues in future, he was completely unprepared for social activities, unable to cope with emotions, and the goddess was completely sure he would find it very hard o form a relationship with any girl.

With their warm up complete both martial artist were ready to begin their training. There was a reason they were here. Some time ago Genma noted that his son progress in Art really slowed. He was not making much progress. There was something holding the boy and he hoped a place like _Jusenkyo_ would let Ranma overcome his blockade.

"Ranma, follow me !"shouted Genma as he jumped on one of the bamboo poles.

Teenager jumped right behind him on another of numerous poles.

Neither of them head any notice to _Jusenkyo_ guide shouting. "Ah sir, what you doing ?"

Then both of them attacked and clashed in mid air. Peorth eyes widened in horror. Not because that clash looked dangerous. The goddess had just remembered what exactly the curse of Jusenkyo was.

Mid air battle was on, Ranma evaded one of his fathers attacks, then he landed a kick on him and the older martial artist went down, right into one of the springs. One moment later, a panda jumped out from the spring.

"Wha... wha... wha..." was all Ranma could say at that moment.

"That is spring of drowned Panda !" he heard Jusenko Guide, as he tried to explain the situation "There is tragic legend, very tragic, of panda... who drown there two thousand years ago !"

Ranma actually felt how angry his father was. Panda pressed the attack. Unable to calm him the boy was trying to dodge, yet he would need to be able to evade every attack while all it took would be one hit. Ranma was a split second to late with a single jump, and a strong paw attack send him down.

"No!" shrieked Peorth. The time was slowing down. Ranma was flowing throught the air, right into one of the cursed springs. The goddess snapped. She could very well loose her license for what she was going to do, yet she was ready to proceed anyway. Ancient sutras say that a goddess patience can last a thousand years. Peorth was much better than that, she managed to keep with Genma for whole ten years. The guardian rushed towards plummeting Ranma. She would be too late to prevent the splash, but she could reverse the curse of Jusenkyo. She began weaving her magic.

" _Gentle water, healing wind, thou are now bound to my will"_ she began as force and power played all around her " _Hear my command, grant a trance to my ward!"_ And the moment her ward hit the surface of water she jumped right into the spring.

Ranma was right there, the powers of _Jusenkyo_ already changing his frame. Peorth looked at the form of the curse. Right before her eyes the young martial artist changed for the first time, into the form of girl. But the magic was reinforced, the spell lines were being interwoven with the strands of fate. Reversing the curse would be far beyond her abilities, as neither the _Jusenkyo_ nor the very spring were a coincidence. It was a _hitsuzen_ , the inevitable and it made the curse an integral part of Ranma's destiny.

Peorth pushed unconscious Ranma back towards the surface of the spring. She tried to think what she could do right now. How she should help. Her options were severely limited. But there was a single important thing. The rules that set her limits, they were more like guidelines. The goddess looked at the situation in completely other way. Peorth could do one thing more, something very risky, both to the boy and herself, yet she had great faith both in his and her own abilities. The attempt to heal Ranma mental trauma was present and she would need some real magic even to give him a chance, yet without a risk, she was sure, there would no reward.

She checked that Ranma would be in no risk of drowning. Then she gathered her energies. She would need all her power to complete what she had in mind.

" _By the Power granted on my name!_ " the words were like thunder, for this was no longer just magic, this was a goddess calling on ancient forces " _I call thy forth ! Insight! There is healing to be done, where the secrets are to be revealed ! Guide Ranma to the center of his mind !"_

Despite exhaustion that this spell caused to her she could not rest. The success rested on her being able to help Ranma. So she slipped along trail left by his mind as it started collapsing into itself, further and further, inward into the very soul.

Outside time caught to it's normal speed.

"Ohh !" Shouted _Jusenkyo_ Guide „Not Spring of Drowned Girl. There is tragic legend, very tragic of young girl who drown in spring... one thousand five hundred years ago. Now whoever fall in that spring..." He stopped as he saw that Ranma was floating unconscious in water. "Ohh ! This look not good ! Panda sir, we must get her out of water. Something is wrong here !"

Genma jumped into water and guide grabbed a bamboo pole and together they took Ranma's female form out of spring. Then they carried her, very carefully, to guide's hut.

 **XXX**

Ranma tried to remember what actually happened. His father had just changed into a panda, then he got hit and he dropped into water. So it looks like he would be now changed into something as well. But he couldn't explain how he got here, and it was a rather strange place.

He was sitting in a middle of a garden. _Sakura_ petals filled the air. He could smell cherry trees. He looked around a bit more. A small _koi_ fish pond was to his left. He could see a forest, but he could not make how close or far away, as it looked to be in a distance all the time. To his right was a a ring of clear ground, it looked like prepared for training or combat. He decided to check it first.

As he came into the training ground he heard someones steps behind him. Ranma turned around to find was a girl standing right before him. She was exactly the same age as him. Petite, dark haired, with slender arms and legs, she wore a white _gi,_ identical to his own, that looked like it was two sizes to large for her. The girl was gorgeous, really well developed for her years, in all areas that matter. She also had large eyes in incredible shade of blue. Ranma knew that shade very well, he saw it in mirror every time he looked at himself. He looked more closely at her, to find that there was more than just eyes. The girl really could be his twin sister, or perhaps much more, she looked like his clone, with a chromosome change. Ranma reached a conclusion.

"You are me ?" asked Ranma-kun „My cursed form ?"

"Well, it's a bit complicated." was her answer, the girls voice was like dripping honey. Sweet and promising, with a hint of melody in it. It actually send a shiver down through him. The girl could drive a monk into abandoning his vows with just words "Your cursed form does indeed look like me, but I'm something else."

She started to walk around her male twin continuing her monologue.

"I'm what you didn't want. Every bit you've sacrificed, every part you've got rid off. Each time you took a bit of crap our dear Pops was feeding you, you've lost a part that became me. You've worked so hard to become a macho man, that you've suppressed everything feminine in you and well you've kinda created me."

She spun around giggling.

„Now Ranma" She turned to him again, with a dangerous gleam in her eyes "This is my chance, right here at this place. I can take over. Now I can suppress you. After all you've got yourself a body to match me. "

"Take over?" Ranma laughed "A weak girl ? You certainly can talk, lets see if you can back it up."

She lashed at him, with a strong front kick but the boy was able to dodge it, he quickly jumped over her sweep, only to find it a feint as the girl buried her elbow into his stomach.

"Oh look at you." the female Ranma laughed "The worst our dear Pops could think of was always, you hit like a girl, or you fight like a girl." She cracked her knuckles "Time to find out how a girl can really hit, macho boy."

They both attacked each other. Probing each other defenses for a few seconds. Ranma-kun was not going to underestimate his opponent for a second time. He kept his guard on, looking for an opening. He tried several quick kicks, but the girl was faster than him. She danced away from his reach, trying to hit from flank. He blocked it, and followed another of her feints with one of his own. The girl again tried to jump out of combat, only to find that her brother was counting on that, as he used the advantage of his greater height and reach, to score a strong punch on her. The boy pressed the attack, but far to strongly, as he left himself open and she landed two punches of her own, while jumping over him.

Peorth could continue to watch the combat for a while, but while the show of skill of both forms of Ranma was incredible, it was not what for she brought him to the center of the mind. The goddess made herself visible, then she coughed.

Both the boy and the girl turned to face the newcomer. They saw a young woman floating mid air. She wasn't wearing much more than some sort of black bikini and an orange harness, and as always she had the sort of beauty that can be described only as unearthly.

"Let me guess." Said Ranma-chan taxing the sight before her "You're our sexual desire ?"

" _Moi_ ? Oh no." answered the goddess with a little giggle "I'm your guardian spirit. Let me introduce myself" she spun midair ending in a pose that could be used as a Sailor Senshi recruitment poster "I'm goddess first class..., second category..., unlimited..., Peorth."

The two Ranma's looked at her, then at each other.

"This is getting better and better" Said Ranma-kun, noting that the situation was becoming more and more surreal "First I've got hit by a Chinese gender bender curse, then my girly side tries to bash my brain out and now I've met my personal guardian angel."

"If you want to stop my rise to supremacy over macho boy." Ranma-chan sounded really frustrated "Then I suggest you step aside."

"Oh I have no intention to stop thee." said the goddess "But before you merrily return to bashing your kidneys through your ears, I have to inform thee that you're not alone in here."

Peorth pointed towards the forest. The pair looked there. From amongst the trees something jumped out. It looked somewhat like a cat, though normal ones don't have two tails, teeth like buzz saws and claws that could split a person in half. They usually don't come in size of a saber tooth tiger either.

"Here comes a new challenger !" shouted Peorth, laughing for a second at how cheesy that sounded.

" _Kami-sama_ above." Ranma-chan looked at the goddess "What is that thing?"

Ranma-kun said nothing as he was to busy being completely petrified with fear.

„The result of your _Neko-ken_ training." Peorth looked at the cat demon that slowly started moving towards them. „Or more precisely a summoning ritual, one that was hidden as a training manual. It was supposed to call a _Nekomata_ , a dangerous cat _youkai_ , and make the person selected for the procedure it's avatar. Luckily your sorry excuse of a father botched most parts of ritual and you ended just with a case of mild possession."

The y _oukai_ in question sat near them as if waiting for something.

„The problem is that now it has a chance..." Continued Peorth „...to finish the ritual and gain your body for it's own amusement."

The female Ranma taxed her brother for a while. He was standing there, his face showing nothing but absolute horror.

"Looks to me like being afraid of cats is considered rather manly, as he didn't push that onto me. While the macho boy is playing too scared to breath..." Ranma-chan said in arrogant tone „...I'll just bring the kitty down, then I take my ride on my new body."

She went to attack the cat.

Peorth floated next to Ranma-kun and she started to whisper right into his ear.

"You ain't gonna help her?" Peorth tried to sound amused „She won't be able to keep up without your assistance."

"I'm afraid." Ranma managed to whisper „I'm afraid of c-c-c-cats."

"There is nothing wrong with being afraid Ranma." He heard the goddess whisper into his ear again "Fear is like a superpower, pumping adrenaline into every single of thine cells. Right now you can run faster than ever, but face it, this time there is nowhere to escape to. But this is the oldest instinct, it gives you two options. You can flee, but you fight."

"I'm a coward." Ranma voice was a bit stronger „I'm not brave."

"Baka" he heard goddess melodic voice "Being brave is all about afraid. Only a fool feels no fear. But a hero can overcome it. There is only one moment when you can be brave Ranma, it's when you're really afraid."

The fight wasn't going well for Ranma-chan. The damn thing was just to strong. She could keep with it's speed well enough to keep hitting, yet she lacked strength to make it count. And she wasn't fast enough to keep herself out of monsters reach. Her _gi_ was thorn in several places, and shallow cuts kept bleeding staining what was left of her attire in crimson red color. At this rate she would loose. She tried going for another attack, but her wounds started to slow her down. The _youkai_ hit her hard, and she went down. The cat licked its face, and pounced on her. Ranma-chan close her eyes, unable to dodge. Then she heard as something hit the beast, and it sounded like a hard attack.

"Leave. Her. Alone !" she heard her male twin shout. Ranma-chan opened her eyes. Her brother was standing right between her and the beast. He had some kind of fire in his eyes. Then he attacked the thing he feared most.

That was like a catharsis. For the first time Ranma was not holding back. He went all out on the beast. The sudden ferocity of his attack pushed the n _ekomata_ in too deep defensive. He pressed the attacks, hitting harder than he did ever, but the element of surprise could carry him only so far. Soon the _youkai_ cat discovered that he was faster than his new opponent. Ranma again found himself facing an opponent that was quicker than him. The difference was that his sister attacks were like small stings. The beast hit like a truck. This time however he faced adversary with vastly lower skill than him. What he lost in speed he could make for with his Art. He started to trade hit for hit with demonic cat.

Ranma-chan managed to gather herself. She was awe struck by the fight before her. The determination, and fire in her male twin was as incredible as his strength, yet she saw that he was loosing. The boy had everything she lacked, power and passion for the fight, yet she was in possession of what he was missing, speed and grace. The girl knew that neither of them could defeat the beast alone. That was the key element here. Neither of them were a match for this demon. She saw a way to win this one.

Ranma-kun landed after yet another aerial crash with the cat. He felt like someone caught in a rock slide, he was battered, bruised and wounded. Good thing was that _youkai_ didn't look much better than him. Sadly he didn't have much hope of winning, he still had strength in him, but he wouldn't be able to hold for too long.

He felt someone grab his hand.

"You cannot win this one. No more than I could." he heard the voice of his other self „We, however, can win."

"Together, sister." he said, understanding what she meant.

"Together, brother." she confirmed.

Peorth had to fight the urge to put on glasses, and clasp her palms into pyramid shape, for right now, everything was going according to plan.

They assaulted the beast together. Ranma-chan strike went first, she pestered the _youkai_ with hurricane of attacks, but as soon as the demon led his counterattack she jumped to the side, letting her brother to score a powerful axe kick. Cat tried to press his attack on the boy but again the nimble girl threw him off balance. Saotome twins caught a new rhythm in fight. The girl was a blur, always ready to throw their opponent off the balance, pester him trying to draw it into attacks. She was a shadow, for every time the cat tried to attack it left itself open. The boy was always behind her, he covered her every retreat, scored on every opening. Together they were like a master fencer. Female was a cloak, male was a weapon hidden right behind it. They formed a good team and with every second they got better. Like two bodies, yet with one soul both of them reached a synch ratio that Eva pilots could only see in they wet dreams. Against they performance the _nekomata_ could do only one thing, loose. He did then so.

As the demon collapsed both combatants stood there, breathing heavily. The adrenaline started to fade off and they both felt like collapsing themselves. They saw Peorth as she moved closer to the cat demon. She took one of her earrings and threw it, taking the _youkai_ in bright flash of light, leaving only some smoking ash on the ground.

"Thou art now free of the demon." She turned towards the twins „No longer you'll be afraid of cats and never will it be able to possess control of this body. But now it's time to decide with one of you will take from here on."

"None should be able..." They began together, stopping as they looked on each other, then the girl nodded to Ranma-kun, allowing him to begin.

"I can't be the one to take from here. This fight made me understand something very important."

The boy looked at Ranma-chan the whole time he talked "My progress in the Art slowed to a crawl. I thought it's because I was too weak, but now I know that's because I kinda was too strong. Without you I can never become what I can be."

"I'm not the one to take over either." It was the girls turn to keep eyes on Ranma-kun "I'm just an echo, build of some discarded emotions. I lack the fire to be a real person. Without you I could newer be alive the way you could be."

Then they've turned towards the goddess. Saotome twins were both battered, barely able to stand. Yet they had the eyes as strong as ever as they reached the obvious conclusion.

"We can only continue..." they said in unison "...if we are to become one."

For a moment it was him, and her standing right next to each other. Then for a moment it was them. After that it was just one person standing there. Ranma, as much the fierce, strong boy as he was the graceful, fast girl. He was more than just the two of them combined, for he was something new. One part of a person he was, one part of person he could become. He turned towards the goddess and bowed to her deeply.

"Thank you, Peorth-sama" he said as he noted a subtle change in his voice, it was now a little bit more confident "I think this is all your doing."

"This is actually only your own work." Peorth smiled towards the boy before her "I merely gave you a chance."

"Are you able to do something about the curse ?" He asked with hope in his voice. "Maybe there is some form of cure ?"

"Curing the curse requires a magic more potent than _Jusenkyo_." Peorth tried to explain it to Ranma in layman terms "Such powers always come at a price and you will find yourself unable, or not willing to pay. You can spend rest of your life chasing after yet another wonder to get rid of the curse, or adapt and see where your road will take you. For there is one thing you must know Ranma" the goddess melodic voice continued "Of all cursed training grounds your father brought you to this one. Of all springs you fell into _Nyannīchuan_. Already this allowed for the mending of your soul and it's not the end. The _Jusenkyo_ curse is not without a purpose, it has a part to play in your destiny."

"A part of destiny?" Ranma was surprised "I don't understand."

"Not everything is supposed to be easy." Peorth said "It is not for me to tell, but for you to find out."

She looked at him. The boy had done so well. This actually went much better than she anticipated. There was however something more to be done.

"Now Ranma, before you return and leave this place I have a question and a gift for you" the goddess turned to him "Who are you ? What do you want ?"

Ranma pondered the question. What he didn't know was how ancient it was. Perhaps older than humanity. Echoing through galaxy sometimes asked together, sometimes forming two questions. But he discovered that it is very easy to look deep into oneself when you are already there.

"I'm Ranma." he said "I want... to be a better person."

Peorth smiled as she came closer to Ranma.

"God answer." she said "Now for the gift." She kidded the surprised martial artist in forehead. It was like a cool older sister giving her little brother a lucky kiss.

"You might find your new ability useful. Traveling in China will be a bit easier with knowledge of the language" she laughed.

Inside _Jusenkyo_ guide's house, lying on a bed, near a lit fireplace Ranma slowly awoke. He felt his cursed body. But he wasn't uncomfortable. The boy he was this morning would already run around looking for a way to change back. But now he was someone else, perhaps better. So instead she opened her eyes and slowly sat on bed. The _Jusenkyo_ Guide almost jumped, he looked at the girl, and smiled as he rushed outside .

„Panda sir !" he shouted „your son, she is awoke!"

Genma went inside the hut. Too his great surprise he found that his son, or at the moment daughter was busy checking herself in the mirror.

"Well." she said turning towards her father, or at the moment pet panda "At least I look rather good when cursed." She looked towards Jusenkyo Guide standing right behind panda. "Honorable Guide." she asked in near perfect mandarin "What can you tell me about _Jusenkyo_ curses ?

 **XXX**

Ranma sat cross legged on the bed, still in a girl form. Her father sat nearby on a chair, back in human form. Not that it made much difference Ranma-chan remarked. Both forms were fat, lazy and ignorant. At least he would find it easier to fill that endless pit of a belly, bamboo was easy to find. Those were some new thoughts and it wasn't all that was new. The new body felt different, a bit wrong, but maybe that was a matter of adapting to it. But the world looked a little bit odd, it smelled, and sounded altogether alien. Yet with all that it was still Ranma finding the world the same, albeit a bit different. Eyes stayed the same, the angle of view changed a bit. Now he had to retell the sorry excuse of a father sitting before her what knowledge he learned from _Jusenkyo_ Guide.

"This looks like this, Pops" said the black haired girl, Ranma was still getting accustomed to the new voice in possession of this female form "First some congratulations are on their way. You've managed to out bid _Neko-ken_ training. At least this time I'm not the only one to pay up for your stupidity."

"Show me some respect, boy." Genma snapped.

"That would be girl, at least at the moment" Ranma-chan said in calm tone "You want to hear what I learned or not ?"

She waited for a moment, looking on her father, he tried to say something, but instead he just made a nod.

"We are now cursed." She begun relating her knowledge of the curse „The way it works is quite simple, cold water turns us into cursed form, and hot gets us back into normal one. The problem is that, well this is a curse, and part of it is that, well, we kinda turn into water magnets. The world is supposed to go out of it's way to get us soaked."

She went silent for a moment, as if waiting to get sure that Genma understood everything. Then she continued.

„You fell into spring of drowned panda, I got my self spring of the drowned girl. As far as what I've been told, the good news is we could have got much, much worse. There are curses that change into rats, hamsters, and other small animals, and there are some that affect the mind as well as the body. The bad news are, that well there is kinda no cure..."

„Wait, Ranma." Genma said „If there's a spring of a drowned girl, they might be spring of a drowned boy, we get a dip in that one, and we're clear of the curse."

Ranma looked at him for a moment.

„Geez, you think that I didn't ask about that ?" she said „There actually is a spring of drowned boy. But it won't help us a bit." Ranma voice was really sad at the moment „We have what Guide called strong curses. Which means other strong curses won't overwrite ours, we would need, what is called composite, or mental curse to affect us, and those would only worsen our condition."

Slowly, what was said sank into Genma. There was curse, there was no cure. They would go like this forever, he would become a panda, and Ranma, well it didn't look that bad for him. He would remain human in both forms, just one wouldn't be a man... One wouldn't be a man... _Kami-sama_ above, Nodoka... Genma could see himself writing his death poem already.

„You okay Pops ?" asked Ranma „You've got really pale suddenly."

„No nothing." Genma tried to laugh „I've just had a vision of myself in Beijing zoo, stuck in panda form forever."

„Alright Pops." asked the girl „What other plans you have for our training in China ?"

„Well Ranma, I have this flayer here..." said Genma pulling a large pile of paper form his _gi_.

The black haired girl grabbed the paper from his hand with a speed that could put a cobra into shame. She stood up, holding the flayer in her hand, as far from her body as possible, like some kind of radioactive waste. Then the flayer was deposited in fireplace with a sigh of relief from Ranma-chan.

"Let me guess." she asked "You got that in another pawn shop and it was discounted" She saw a nod from her father "The same you got the _Neko-ken_ training manual, and the One Punch Kill manual from ?" Genma nodded again, the memory of that one training still send shiver down his spine and he really missed his hair "Good I got rid of it then, following that thing would end us as slaves to some Chinese demon or something like that."

"But that gets us nowhere now, we can't travel through China on blind" Genma was little unhappy "Besides, we don't really have much time, we're expected back in Japan in a few weeks."

That picked up Ranma's attention.

"Expected ?" she asked „That sounds... serious. You'll spill what you mean by that ?"

"Well, Ranma." Genma leaned closer to his daughter "that is a... surprise."

Ranma knew Genma well enough, so he was sure that unless he began to torture him, he wouldn't get anything. So the best thing would be just to wait and see what his idiot of a father got him into this time. Probably he'll set up him with another engagement.

" _Jusenkyo_ Guide said that there is an village two days of travel from here." Ranma-chan informed her father "It's supposed to be full of strong martial artists."

"That sounds like a plan, boy." Genma beamed with idea of whole village dedicated to martial arts. He then stopped as something he was missing caught his attention "Son, actually since when do you speak Chinese ?"

"Frankly Pops, I have no idea. It came in packet with curse I guess." The girl answered.

That seemed to fully satisfy Genma's curiosity as he didn't inquire further.

After spending the night in _Jusenkyo_ valley they left, as a boy and a man. Then a sudden, ten minute long downpour caught them. They continued as a one very soaked panda, one equally wet girl, and one goddess, currently very busy, as she was reading "Weather Control for First Class Goddess" manual.

 **XXX**

It's been about an hour after Panda and girl left _Jusenkyo_ valley. The guide once again set up his hammock and as soon as he tried relaxing an ancient Chinese proverb revealed itself. Trouble always arrive in pairs. A rather large, definitely strongly build boy arrived next to him. His unkempt hair was held by a tiger strapped bandana.

„Where is Ranma ?" he asked the guide in Japanese.

„Panda sir son ?" answered the guide „You missed him, they left hour ago."

„Which way they went ?" asked the boy.

 _Jusenkyo_ guide pointed towards the exit from valley. To his absolute surprise the boy immediately ran an exact opposite direction. Two minutes later he heard a splash. Chinese man simply face palmed as he went to check what curse the Japanese boy got for himself.


	3. Dances with Amazons Part I

**Ranma 1/2: A Ward of a Goddess**

 **Disclaimer:** The following is a fan written parody. Ranma ½ belongs to Rumiko Takahashi, Viz Media, Studio Deen, Shogakukan and Madman Entertainment. Oh My Goddess! belongs to Kōsuke Fujishima, Kodansha, Dark Horse Comics and Madman Entertainment. Other IP used have their respective owners as well, I do not own characters and events and they are used without permission. Support the official release, and don't sue me.

[Cold Opening:

Through the void a massive space ship moved. It was all that was left of once powerful fleet. For a small group of humans, the sole survivors of the thirteen colonies this vessel was the only protection. Only thing that could be able to stop their extinction.

Inside one of the hangar a Viper fighter has just landed. The craft's pilot could relax, she finished a mission. Now the female pilot was somewhat safe, as long as she could find a drink. If she managed not to get into a fight with one of superior officers she could even avoid another night in the brig. The woman deftly jumped onto hangars metal deck, leaving the cockpit of her fighter. She pulled her helmet of, revealing the beautiful face of Ranma "Starbucks" Saotome, the best pilot the remnant of the fleet had in their disposition. She turned her small, dark haired head towards camera.

"Previously on Battlestar ½..." said her sweet voice.

Ranma and Genma Saotome visited the dreadful training grounds known as _Jusenkyo_. Within a single moment they became cursed, with a splash of cold water Genma is now taking a form of a panda and his son now turns into a girl. The goddess Peorth, personal guardian spirit to the young martial artist took him to the center of his mind, so he could get into touch with his feminine side and get rid of _Neko-ken_ training induced possession. With his soul now mended Ranma continues his journey through China...]

 **Chapter 2**

 **Dances with Amazons Part I**

Three days have passed since the pair of martial artists left the accursed springs of _Jusenkyo_ behind them. On the first day of their travel they didn't make much progress. The curse quickly proved itself to be quite a nuisance. Usually it was a sudden ten minutes long downpour, or a well hidden, surprisingly deep rain puddle. Few times they've encountered incredibly slick stones on the streams they tried to cross and in one case a boulder falling out of the clear sky right into lake they were walking by. They could change back of course, but only after thirty three minutes the pair of martial artist would get wet again. On the second day of travel both of them decided that gathering wood, setting fire, drying clothes and cooking water several times a day was really not worth it. So it was a girl and her pet panda that traveled through the countryside of China.

For the young man those were rather interesting days. He tried to understand what it would mean to be a better person. He so far had only a single role model in his life and he was discovering that his father was a lousy one. The best idea he had at what he should behave like was rather simple. Think what Pops would do, then do he exact opposite thing. So far he lacked any occasion to test his brilliant concept.

Ranma continued to discover the difference between two bodies he now shared. Some things were different as a girl, excluding the obvious problems with how new plumbing worked. But he could look on world in a different way. Slowly it was increasing his horizons. Genma also noticed some changes in his son. The boy, or most of the time a girl, was moving with increased confidence, he was more graceful and got really faster. Morning sparring which he usually was able to dominate in suddenly got much harder, as he found himself unable to keep up with Ranma. Whatever was slowing his son progress in the Art was now a thing of past.

Peorth was concerned with something else altogether. She expected that her transgression against the wish and her role in healing Ranma would get her some repercussions. Yet there was no one coming. The goddess expected that she would lose her license, or that she would be recalled back to heaven, and her wish would be transferred to someone else. Little perfect Belldandy, her fellow goddess, would do so much better surely. Yet there was no one coming. That meant either that her transgression was not as grave as she imagined. Or and that was more probable, it was Skuld's turn to supervise Yggdrasil, the heaven's supercomputer, those few days ago and the goddess of future would be so occupied with her latest hand held console that she could miss the beginning of apocalypse.

It was near the noon of the third day since they got cursed _._ So far it was a good day, Genma changed himself into man right on morning and for the last five hours he did not get wet. The problem was they didn't get a chance to eat anything for last two days, and they were starving. Ranma actually decided to stay girl and explore his new condition for a whole long day. Having smaller stomach that growled much less helped a bit in reaching that decision, fateful for someone who was about to visit the the village of _Nyucheizu_.

It had maybe fifty huts of various sizes, all spread in rater chaotic matter behind a wooden palisade. The one important thing was that there were wooden beams, training dummies and racks of weapons all around. The inhabitants of the village called themselves _Joketsuzoku,_ but they were better known to the outside world as the Chinese Amazon Tribe. This was only but a one of villages placed on territory under their control. Their council could muster over two thousand fighters if needed and all were trained to be top notch martial artist, fiercely ready to protect their, three thousand years old, tradition and way of life.

Important question would need to be asked. How was a tribe like that able to hold up itself in communist China ? The Party was known to push for conformity after all. To fully understand the situation one would need to know about _Qinghai_ province. It was a cesspool of martial art tribes, ancient burial mounds, cursed training grounds, secret magical societies and held countless enclaves of various Chinese ghosts and demons. The Party could send it's armies and conquer the province. A martial artists of even greatest caliber is barely worth his training against assault rifle. No amount of _Ki_ manipulation tricks could withstand a saturated bombing run. No demon was a match for a tank. Conquering the province was easy. Holding it was not. The occupation force would found itself fighting against enemies that could go invisible, teleport and pull all kinds of crazy stuff with their magic or _Ki_ abilities. While martial artist was not a match for modern army, in a scenario of asymmetrical combat he would be a perfect weapon.

The Chinese Party fully understood that holding the area by force would cost much more than it was worth. So they choose to hold it by proxy. There were martial artists willing to cooperate with them and police the area for the Government. They would have their own traditions and way of life intact and enjoy many perks of gratitude, and the Party would be able to have peace and control over the area with minimal costs payed. The _Joketsuzoku_ were amongst those the Chinese Government used to control the area.

It was a sunny noon when Ranma and Genma walked into the village. A grand tournament was being held. Contests of martial arts prowess such as this one were a part of the tradition. A large table, weighed down with large amount of food stood next to a beam where the contestant fought. The feast was a prize for all and it was the winners privilege to seat at the top of the table. The final bout was about to finish, so no one noticed the two newcomers, who were observing the ongoing fight.

Ranma checked the two combatants. A girl, perhaps of his age, with long purple hair, dressed in pants and blouse was one of combatants. She wielded a pair of _Chuí_ maces. It was a heavy weapon for a girl, but Ranma noted that the Chinese martial artist used them with great ease and skill. Her opponent was... a well shaven gorilla, perhaps. The second... woman, he thought that was a woman... maybe, held a two handed spiked mace, that looked like it weighted a ton. Weak like a girl, my ass, he thought about one his father favorite sayings. Then both of the starving martial artists noted the feast on the table. The pair rushed towards it, only Ranma stopped after several steps as the principles of becoming a better person told him that gorging himself on someones else food was not in good manners. In Genma's case the growling of empty belly drowned the last semblance of rational thought he possessed as he jumped on the food. Ranma-chan turned towards the villagers to face a one very angry and cute Chinese girl, that was aiming a pair of her maces on him.

"What is that fat bastard doing with my prize ?" She asked the dark haired outsider before her. Ranma didn't know what to answer. He was terrible when it came to talking. His social skills were no existent, at best. The boy was also inflicted with Saotome problem, whenever he opened his mouth he would put his foot right into it. But he had principles he adhered too. He also regained his connection to feminine side and that gave him instinctual ability to know what to say. Combination of these two factors was able to counter some of his problems. For the first time he said something that was a good idea.

"I'm very sorry for my fathers behavior." Ranma-chan apologized in mandarin "He was born with an incurable problem of being an idiot."

Peorth, who watched all that was happening felt a little proud on the change happening in her ward. He was truly becoming a new person, perhaps a better one.

Someone jumped next to the angry Chinese girl. The newcomer was a miniature dried-up mummy, sitting on a top of a stick. She looked more like a museum piece that a person, but she was alive.

"I see that at least it's not heritable" Chuckled the old ghoul before Ranma.

"I do certainly hope so." Dark haired girl answered.

Genma was completely oblivious to what was happening right now as he was close to clearing one third of the feast and was gaining speed. Eat as much as you can before you need to run was an important rule of Anything Goes Martial Arts.

"Your father overused our hospitality and he is gorging himself on the first prize. I'm afraid we will have to arrest him, and some form of punishment will be in order" continued the miniature mummy.

Ranma-chan simply stepped aside, as his current plan was to sit and enjoy the sight of his father squirming.

Genma noted the problem when a _Chuí_ mace smashed the table before him. He saw one very angry Chinese girl before him and a group of armed villagers beginning to encircle him. He couldn't find his son anywhere. He decided that the best course of action would be to adhere to another rule of his Art. Escape now, think later. He was sure Ranma has been already captured and he wouldn't be able to rescue his son if he would fall to villagers himself.

Genma jumped to the air, the natural element of his style. He found that the Chinese girl tried to cut his escape off. He could drop her easily with a single kick. To his surprise a quick blur arrived between him and the girl to block the attack, his shock increased when he saw that it was his son.

"Ranma, what are you trying to do ?" he shouted in Japanese, trying a quick dash to the left, yet he was again cut off by his own child. "You're supposed to help, not hinder me."

"Give up Pops, you're only making the situation harder for both of us." Ranma-chan casually continued as she cut off another of her fathers jumps. The Chinese girl was moving towards his back, so the young martial artist decided to draw Genma's attention to himself. "You've could at least get me engaged, then we could get the feast as a dowry. It definitely worked with Ukyo's _okonomiyaki_ cart eight years ago."

"Ranma, I did that..." Said Genma landing on ground. He dropped his guard for second. It didn't take any longer for _Chuí_ mace to find it's target and land on his head.

"Take him and put him into cage." ordered the old ghoul, she turned towards Ranma-chan "We should get a chance to talk, lil' girl."

 **XXX**

The elderly woman showed Ranma-chan inside one of huts. She was still sitting on top of her stick through the whole time using it to pogo around instead of walking. She started to make some tea for the two of them. Peorth took her chance to look around. She found collection of souvenirs, ancient coins, scrolls, some strange things in jars and some Chinese artifacts. Most of them were fake, but she could feel the strong magical aura of the few genuine one. Beside that the inside of the hut was a simple one, kitchen, one bed and a table in the middle. It didn't look like the old ghoul needed much comforts from her house.

"Here you are." The mummy said as she put two cups of tea on the table "I'm Elder Kuh Lohn, a matriarch of this village, a member of tribe council and teacher of martial arts."

"It's a great honor, Elder." Was the black haired girls answer "I'm Saotome Ranma, a traveling martial artist."

The Elder looked at the young person before her for a second before continuing. The dark haired martial artist was a petite girl, barely standing 145 centimeters tall and she scored that high only by wearing top hat and roller skates. But she moved with grace and confidence of a warrior. She was well endowed for someone of her stature and was a wiry and somewhat muscular, build like an athlete. Her hands were tiny and her arms slender, but Kuh Lohn knew that the girl could pummel concrete into paste if she choose so.

"You've made a good impression." She took a sip of her tea "You're a talented martial artist, and your help was useful. You're an exceptional female, and by defending one of ours you've placed yourself in situation where I could treat you as an amazon warrior. I would like to share my knowledge with you, the three thousand years of martial arts tradition and techniques could be at your disposal. What would you say, if I offered you some training ?"

Ranma suddenly found himself in one his private dreams. Three thousand years of tradition, whatever incredible techniques amazons held could be his. He would just need not to reveal... Saotome Anything Goes Martial Arts Mental Judo... He absolutely had to reveal who he was.

"That's fantastic offer, elder." The girl began "But there is a single problem, three days ago Pops and I visited _Jusenkyo_..."

"Poor child." Kuh Lohn interrupted, with sadness and a bit of care in her voice "What do you turn into ?"

Ranma-chan moved few stops from he table, then she spun around, pointing towards herself. "This is my cursed form."

"Ah !" answered the elder as she understood what Ranma said "Oh !" as she fully understood what the girl... ehrr boy before her meant.

Kuh Lohn was more than surprised. She just offered training to her guest and the first thing he did was to reveal that he lacked certain qualifications to take her offer. That actually impressed her a lot more than the small show of Ranma's prowess when he helped in his father's capture. It didn't however mean much, while it was true that people of _Joketsuzoku_ strongly believed in female superiority it was not unheard of enough dedicated male to hold the title of amazon warrior. Besides even if Ranma was born as a boy, he definitely was a girl right now.

"Child, it does not matter." The elder decided that she would not let the talented youngster before her go away "Even if you are girl just by becoming plaything of _Jusenkyo_ curse it does not change the fact that you are a strong martial artist. My offer still stands. You will however need to show your dedication to the training by remaining a girl for the whole time."

"I hope I can manage that." The girl dedication to martial arts was like a beacon "I'm however supposed to be back in Japan in a few weeks. Pops has something prepared for me and all I know it has something to do with family honor."

"Your father is no position to make any demands, as he is now a prisoner of _Joketsuzoku."_ Kuh Lohn remarked strongly "But I do understand honor is not an empty word for you, so my offer will change a bit, you can stay with us for a month, undertaking full amazon warrior training under my tutelage. After that will release your father from custody and arrange some plane tickets for you so you two can get to Japan in time."

"Plane tickets ?" Ranma was a bit surprised.

"The fact that we are primitive barbarians sticking to our ancient traditions." The elder woman laughed "Does not mean we throw away the comforts of modern civilization. Then Ranma, are you willing to begin your training ?"

"Of course, elder." Ranma answered eagerly "When do we start ?"

"Right now, if you'll follow me." Kuh Lohn taxed the young martial artist before her "But first I will need to see your full skill. Oh and one thing, what does your father turn into ?"

"A panda." The girl giggled, surprising herself "Not that it's much of a change."

Ranma followed his new teacher outside, to the beam that was used during martial arts contest in the morning. There he saw elder jumping onto it, so he went right behind the old ghoul. They stood for a second on opposing ends of the beam and they started to attract some audience. Ranma-chan was the first one to attack, she threw several punches and kicks, but none of them connected. The elder was easily dodging every single one of them. The black haired girl tried to set up a feint, but all she succeed in was getting hit by a stick and landing in dirt below. Kuh Lohn was ready to end the fight with a comment, but to her surprise the young Japanese girl gathered herself as she jumped back on the beam. This time the young martial artists attack was different. Her movements were not only faster, but they were also more graceful. Ranma was also improvising a lot more, falling more to instincts than to skill. This made it a lot harder for the elder to dodge her attacks with ease, she had to put an effort into reading the girls moves as no longer they were told to her. This was getting interesting, the Japanese martial artist was adapting very fast, and her fighting style was quite good. Actually Kuh Lohn was sure she saw this style somewhere before, she just couldn't place it. Ranma attacked again with an array of quick punches, overextending herself forward and loosing balance, the elder quickly jumped over the girl, to use the opening, only to find that this was an another feint, as black haired martial artist send a strong backwards kick. The old ghoul was not falling for that trick a second time... she blocked the attack with her staff, the strength of that hit broke it two and the dried-up mummy used both halves of it to trip Ranma from the beam, back to the dirt below. Now she recognized what the boy used, Anything Goes Martial Arts, a style of adaptation and deception, one that placed ends before means. It was very dangerous, even to those that practiced it.

Ranma-chan tried to gather herself up again, but this time he felt that the best thing would be to admit his skill was far below the ancient teacher.

"Got enough here." she said turning and sitting slowly "I'm looking forward to that training."

Kuh Lohn was looking at the girl with her aura sight fully on, studying the her... his... _Ki_ flow. She was now absolutely sure that the martial artist was a boy, though while his energies were strong in masculine _yang_ it looked like he was also in perfect balance with feminine _yin_ energies. This was a rare thing, to have such a balance of energies would require a perfect acceptance of ones feminine side, perhaps it was an effect of _Jusenkyo_ curse. She looked deeper into his aura, there was a lot of confidence there, bordering with arrogance, and some strange, freshly healed scar, usually found only in someone who was exorcised. To her relief she didn't find what she was looking for. There was no sign of taint that His training would leave, so while the boy was an adept of Anything Goes Martial Arts he was not exposed to the most dangerous teachings of that style. It looked like the elder would need to have a talk with his father. She started to slip out of aura sight as she noted something strange, right next to the neo girl there was a second presence, one that was very well hidden, barely noticeable even by someone of her skill. The elder tried to focus and pierce the veil that protected it, only to find that that was well beyond her abilities. She would need to think about it later.

"Don't worry about a single lost fight, you did remarkably well" The elder smiled towards the girl "You are however two hundred years away from being able to defeat me, though I hope we will be able to cut at least fifty years during your training. Rest today, for we begin tomorrow morning."

The Elder of _Joketsuzoku_ waited till some villagers helped Ranma to get to one of guest huts. She was impressed by the fight, the boy turned girl was incredible. Sixteen years old martial artist was trained far better than some of the amazon warriors twice his age. The best warriors of girls age category Xian Pu and Parr Fume would found themselves beaten within a single round, even if both Chinese girls were to tag the Japanese martial artist. Before this fight she intended to put Ranma into basic training, but he was in no need for it. Advanced weapon training, meditation , basic _Ki_ manipulation would be better for someone of his skill. Kuh Lohn was an accomplished teacher who raised many generations of warriors so she knew students like young martial artist that she just fought with. She had to give them something special along with the foundations to keep them interested in learning at all. _Kachū Tenshin Amaguriken_ would be ideal for beginning, maybe _Bakusai Tenketsu_ for later if the time allows for that _._

But right now she needed to talk with the prisoner that tried to eat the main prize.

 **XXX**

The hour was late and dusk was already setting upon the village. Without the electricity the only source of light were candles and oil lamps. This meant that with night time coming soon it was best to end the day and wait for another. For all their claim of knowing about modern comforts the Chinese Amazons were still getting up and lying asleep along with the sun. The village matriarch, Kuh Lohn was making her way towards the outskirts of the village, to have a talk with a person held prisoner right there.

Genma was put inside a cage, made out of bamboo. It was a sturdy one, well made and it was created by a tribe that lived and breath martial arts, so it was proof to any technique. Since there was no cold water around he couldn't try to eat his way out. For someone who was able to turn into panda a bamboo cage was alike to one made out of bacon. As the middle aged martial artist was going through the list of his escape plans he noted that he had visitor, the dried-up mummy from before.

"We need to talk, sonny."she said to him in quite passable Japanese.

"Not in the mood." Was his answer, he felt a little rebel at the moment "I demand to be released."

He got whacked on the head by her new walking stick.

"You are in no position to demand anything." She snarled. "I've come here to discuss the terms of your custody and to talk about your son."

Genma's mind worked on his highest gear. It wasn't much better than usual, but it meant that his perception was closer to that of a normal person.

"So you've figured out that he is a cursed person ?" He got a little worried, if Ranma followed teachings of his martial arts then he would try to use his girl form for advantage "How deeply in trouble is he?"

"I would have figured, but Ranma actually informed me of his... condition well before I had any chance." The old ghoul was looking on the middle aged man with her aura sight. He was a powerful martial artist, but sadly a very broken one. The deep scars left by His training were strongly visible. Yet she expected much greater damage, the taint was barely there. She discovered some respect for cursed man before her. He choose to break instead to submit to teachings of the old pervert. "It also looks like you did good job at training your son in Anything Goes Martial Arts."

Genma got pale, the miniature mummy was aware of style they practiced. That meant she would know about it's founder, she surely looked ancient enough. Genma decided that the best course would be too play open cards with the ghoul.

"What I taught Ranma is a pure version. I did some harsh things, but I did them out of necessity. I had to come with training that would have the same effect, but without using the same means as the teachings I received." Genma voice was different from the one he used normally, he also dropped country men accent. Kuh Lohn was surprised by the change and a hint of wisdom in the martial artist before her. It looked like there was more than met the eye about the stocky middle-aged man. "My son... he has incredible potential. He can be the greatest martial artist of his generation. I've taken him to the road, to train him, to purge him of any weakness, but at the same time I worked to clear the martial arts that I've taught him. The Saotome Anything Goes Martial Arts is created without His influence."

"You are full of surprises." the old ghoul laughed. "The greatest one is that you've succeeded. You son really has potential, but above that he has strong foundation in Art. With the training I plan to put him through he will get much better."

"Wait." Genma was a bit surprised "You plan to train Ranma ?"

"Of course." the old ghoul laughed again "Some amazon training, meditation, _ki_ practice. Maybe one or two techniques picked up from three thousand years of tradition. I plan to train Ranma for a month. Then I might give him back to you. Or I might decide to keep her."

"Keep her ?" The tone of her voice send a shiver of fear down his sine. The old ghoul spoke it so casually as if it was possible.

"I have three thousand years of tradition to back me up." The tone of her voice dropped really cold "I've got one month to work. I could lock his curse then fall to _shiatsu_ techniques and shatter his self image as male, leaving him to fully embrace his new form. Then I could break his mind and reprogram him to believe he always was an amazon."

Genma was suddenly very cold. The way the elder spoke. She wasn't bluffing, it was well within her abilities to perform what she told about.

"What I will do will partly be decided by Ranma and partly by you." She said to puzzled Genma "You heard me right. You have two choices, remain locked in cage for a month, or work what you've eaten during that time. The second choice will give you a bit of freedom. You will however work hard, you will not initiate any contact with Ranma during that time and I will have your oath on your honor as a martial artists that you will not try to escape. I don't really need to explain with choice has greater chance of you coming back to Japan with your son, unchanged but well trained ?"

It wasn't much of a choice, but it was one nevertheless. Genma did choose wisely "Hereby I give my oath..."

 **XXX**

Ranma woke early in the morning. He noted several things. This was his first night as a girl. It felt a bit different. He was stiff in places he was not stiff before and he couldn't scratch places he usually scratched in the morning. He felt an urge to stretch a bit. Ranma also noted than he was not in tent and there was an unfamiliar ceiling above him. Since the boy was not really concerned with architecture, he turned slowly to his left. He couldn't find his _gi._ Instead there was a long sleeved teal blouse and a pair of matching pants waiting for him. At least there were no bra or panties. He could try being a girl for a month as long as no female undies were in picture. He got dressed himself and stepped out of the hut. He now was a girl ready for her first day of training.

Kuh Lohn took him to the forest, about forty minutes of walk from the village. There he found a clearing with a large unlit camp fire. Nearby he could see a stream, producing low, but audible sound of passing water.

"Now Ranma, we begin your training." The old ghoul said as she lighted the the fire. "Today we will concentrate only on first technique, but from tomorrow on you will have a more diversified training."

The girl next to her nodded in acceptance as she sat on the grass waiting for the elder. As soon as the fire was ready she called Ranma-chan.

"Now I will offer you a demonstration of the legendary amazon technique." The dried-up mummy threw a bag of sweet chestnuts into the fire "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire ! Watch very carefully."

She leaned over the fire and then her hands became a blur. In less than a second she pulled all of the chestnuts from the fire.

"You think you can repeat that ?" She asked the amazed girl standing before her. "The trick is to get all chestnuts without getting burned."

"Just move over." Ranma's usual arrogance flared "I'll do it in no time."

A second later one dark haired girl started to run around in circles shouting "It burns, it burns !" all over again.

"Go cool your hands in the stream, student." She noted that she forgot to bring more bags of chestnuts. "There are some buckets over there, get the fire down, I'll be right back."

She left Ranma alone, murmuring something about not being this forgetful fifty years ago as she went back to the village. The girl knelt next to the stream as she put her hands into the cold water.

His guardian spirit looked at all of this absolutely shocked. Peorth was completely sure that only Genma was a crazy teacher. But now she discovered that amazon training techniques were equally as stupid. Were all martial artist a bunch of insane child abusers ?

What she did not have was a knowledge of martial arts. They rarely interested a type two (customer service) goddess and Peorth had to learn on the fly. So she did not understand how martial arts worked. In regular tame scenario where training was just a hobby or a sport the Art was pretty regulated and training rarely went beyond _kata_. Yet in the world of serious, real martial arts things were far more complicated. In sport getting the second place would mean just a bit of humility, but outside it could mean enslavement, death or worse. So the training was taken far more seriously. Martial artists fiercely believed that what does not kill you will make you stronger. They took that to logical extreme, the closer you are to getting killed, or maimed, the better the training will become. Both Amazons and Genma understood these principles.

However Genma's and Kuh Lohn's training methods should not be compared. Amazons trained under responsible, adult supervision, not that of one snoring, lazy bump. The elders of _Joketsuzoku_ gave their training to willing, experienced martial artists, not completely unprepared children. Finally their teachings were backed up by three thousand years of tradition. Genma had only the backing of two bottles of sake, the tradition of what the guys at the bar said and an occasional training pamphlet he bought in a pawn shop.

Peorth just didn't care about martial arts theory, she really cared about Ranma however. She knew a better way to teach this technique so she began helping her ward. Unbeknownst even to herself Peorth was a genius when it came to martial arts. If she was born as a _kunoichi_ she would put Jiraya into shame, if she was an amazon she would revolutionize the way martial arts are taught. But as she was a goddess there would be only one student that could benefit from the help of the savant _sensei_.

Ranma was still cooling her small, slender hands in the water when she noticed that a lot of fishes were swimming close to her, instinctively she grabbed one of them. That was quite difficult as it required a lot of speed...

Usually at a moment like that a lit bulb should appear over Ranma's head. The girl should start leaping around shouting "Eureka !". But she was a woman of action so she simply grabbed two buckets...

About an our later Kuh Lohn came back, this time carrying a large bag of sweet chestnuts with her. To her absolute surprise she found that her new student was busy grabbing fish from one bucket to another with a near blinding speed.

"May I inquire what are you doing, student ?" She asked a bit puzzled.

"Well Elder, I kinda got an idea." He began his explanations, as she stopped her practice "While I waited for my hands to cool of I could practice by catching fish, the principle is kinda similar, the trick is to get the fish without getting wet."

Kuh Lohn looked absolutely shocked, going along the ways of why she didn't get that the idea. This was quite obvious if you looked at it. The girl... ehrr boy... Ranma was a genius. Of course the method was somewhat crude at the moment, but that didn't change the fact that this was something that no teacher had thought about for one thousand and five hundred years. Kuh Lohn could already see some ways to improve, maybe if she had a tank full of piranha...

Alternating between traditional and new technique Ranma-chan continued practicing till night.

 **XXX**

The next day found Ranma back on the beam again. This time he was facing the village Weapon Master, a butch redhead amazon woman in her thirties, named Rita. That was not a name he expected, he was more settled on someone named Comb, or Hairbrush. But he learned that her odd name, like everything in the village had roots in tradition. Several centuries ago a trading caravan was attacked on the Silk Road. Only one person survived, a young Italian redhead girl named Rieza. She was adopted by the _Joketsuzoku_ and grew up to be one of the best warriorsin the history of tribe. In memory of her name, whenever one of her descendents was born with the odd quirk of being a redhead she would receive a name from their honorable ancestors homeland. Currently there were two such woman the weapon master before him, and her younger sister Ridaretta.

"I don't really like weapons." The dark haired girl fumed a bit.

"What is wrong with using a weapon ?" Rita looked at the girl before her, she saw what she could do barehanded and was curious how well she could go when armed.

"Pops always said that it's better to fight barehanded." Ranma explained to his redhead teacher "He said that a weapon is only as good as the person that wields it."

"Well your father then is not as stupid as he looks." Rita laughed "He is right, to a certain point. While a weapon is indeed only as good as the warrior, it does not work the opposite way. The warrior is much more than just the weapon he wields."

"You Amazon teachers are incredible." Ranma was still standing on the beam, getting a bit bored "You have some special training in being cryptic fountains of ancient wisdom ?"

"Actually we do not." Rita was beginning to like the girl "It's just a vicious cycle, our masters say this all time, and after a life time of training it rubs on you, so you continue when you become a teacher yourself." She laughed "But on to the matter, let me ask you, how much music can you make without instrument, excluding singing ?"

"Not very much." Ranma admitted " I could maybe clasp a rhythm, or use my legs to... Oh..."

"I see you are getting it." the redhead teacher continued "As instrument is an extension of a performer a weapon is an extension of a warrior. It is a way to show his art. Without knowing how to use a weapon you will never be able to move beyond your hands and feet. Weapon is not what defines you, you are in a way what defines the weapon, by mastering it you expand your skill and spirit. "

"Alright I kinda understand what you mean." Ranma was slowly discovering the world of martial arts far greater that his own style "So what I will learn then ?"

"That we will find after I'll see you practice with some weapons" Rita threw him a sword "Show me what you've got."

For the next few hours Ranma tried various weapons. As usually in such occasion he got those that were least useful to him first, those he usually whacked himself with. Then it was those he tripped himself with, some he even managed to wrap himself in. Some he was sure were not meant to bend the way they did. The three section staff was a real catastrophe, they would have to rebuild two huts after he tried that one. Finally Rita was satisfied. Three weapons were chosen by her, a pair of rattan sticks, a whip and a chakram.

"I think I have seen enough." She wouldn't forget the three section staff quickly. That had some possibilities, in case the Red Army ever attacked them they could just hand the weapon to the girl and point her into opponents general direction. She's ought to take at least two tank divisions before being defeated. Rita took a pair of rattan sticks "You know what this are ?"

" _Baston_ , also known as _yantok_ , they are used in Filipino martial arts of _Escrima_." When it came to martial arts Ranma was quite knowledgeable.

"An answer that is correct if only partially so." Rita was quite surprised by girl, but she was an outsider, so she should know more about world than her other students. " _Escrima_ is actually based on Amazon teachings, that were stolen from us long time ago. This is a weapon that will suit you the most. We will however add a whip to you arsenal as a weapon meant for disarming or distracting your opponent. Chakram, an ancient weapon that came to our tribe from India, will give you some ranged capability." Noting that Elder Kuh Lohn was closing to them she stopped. "We will begin training on these three weapons tomorrow as I see your other teacher approaching."

The Elder took Ranma to another training session of _Kachū Tenshin Amaguriken_ that lasted till evening. By that point Ranma was exhausted, but there was another training waiting for him.

 **XXX**

He, Ranma-chan despite her form saying otherwise strongly identified himself as he, was sitting in lotus position. That was a new form of training. One equally as difficult as Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire, despite being completely mental exercise. The task was to meditate and visualize a flower and a butterfly. He had to get the butterfly to land on the flower. No matter how much he tried the butterfly was in air all the time, chasing after the thoughts in his head.

Kuh Lohn was surprised when she learned that her student had very little practice in meditation. Martial arts were as much a path of physical as spiritual perfection. For Ranma to get this far in the Art without any real training in anything other than actual fighting was remarkable. She really wondered how far would he get once he received some.

She also used the silence in room to meditate and concentrate herself. She really wanted to know what really the nearly non existent presence that never left the Japanese boy was. So far she was unable to pierce the veil around it. Though she felt a little bit more, whatever was with Ranma was a benevolent force.

Peorth used the occasion to meditate. She was much better than Ranma. Right now she was in perfect _zazen_.

"I can't get it, Elder." Ranma was getting impatient.

"I would be rather surprised if you got it on your first try." His ancient mentor answered. "You are now learning the basics, meditation is a pillar upon which whole worlds have been built." She explained "Without learning the foundations you won't be able to master any advanced techniques."

She jumped back on her stick and three blue spheres of energy appeared around her, encircling her in an ever faster motion, before dissipating after a few seconds.

"While this was just a trick to please the eyes, student." Once again the elder used her mentoring voice "The _Ki_ will allow you for much more. It will allow you to attack with energy, wrap yourself in it, raising your own battle skill. But that is just the beginning."

"What actually is _Ki_?" the Japanese martial artist asked.

"A thing philosophers like to argue a lot about." Kuh Lohn started "It is something we talk a lot about, but really understand very little. Here, in China we call it _Chi_ , while the mystics of India refer to it as _Prana._ Even the ignorant westerners know the concept and call it _élan vital_." She continued her lecture, noting that Ranma listened to her with great concentration "The best we understand is like this. It is a life force, permeating everything and linking all to everything other. It is the flow of energy that allows a martial artist to move above the limitations of human body. Our training gives us an instinctual ability to use it, but without conscious effort most advanced techniques are impossible."

"So I understand without learning to place the butterfly on the flower I won't be able to guide the flow of _Ki_." Ranma noted "It would be a lot easier if I knew what this practice is supposed to teach me."

"Of course, student." She noted Ranma's rather impatient tone "I'm trying to teach you something important. Patience."

The boy understood and returned to his meditation.

 **XXX**

It was on fourth day of his training when the regime relaxed a bit. Ranma found out that he had some free time. He had no idea what to do with it. Whole his life was about training. He had made maybe two friends so far, but outside of that he was always on the road with his father. Amazon village was the first time he was around so many people and it was doing wonders for his social skills. He moved through the village, greeting a few people he knew when he found himself facing the purple haired girl that he briefly met on his first day in the village.

"Where do you think you're going." The amazon girl began in rather menacing tone "You are a great-grandmother stealing outsider." Ranma almost fell into combat stance when the girl glomped his tiny female frame "Where have you been last twelve years ?"

"What ?" was about anything Ranma could come with in this strange situation.

"Great-grandmother is a real slave driver, but now that she trains you I have some time for myself." The girl giggled happily dragging the Japanese martial arts behind her "It looks like you have some free time, so you're coming with me."

"I'm Xian Pu. Elder Kuh Lohn is my great, several times actually, grandmother. I'm her protege, she trains me to become the next matriarch of our village." The girl continued dragging the poor dark hared girl behind one of the huts.

There was a second Chinese girl waiting for them. Xian Pu left Ranma and he could finally get a good look on both of them. The girl that dragged him was even better developed than him, in all areas that matter. She had long, purple hair and was very attractive. The second one had an aura of mystery over her, generated mostly by the way she carried her short, dark hair that completely covered her left eye. While she was not as well built as neither her friend, nor the Japanese girl she was no less attractive. She was also the tallest of all three girls.

"Commander Parr Fume." Xian Pu turned to the second Chinese girl, barely able to contain giggle "I have secured the outsider. She is in unable to escape and she will have to help us in our plan."

Plan ? Ranma was a puzzled on what was going on. The girl sounded a bit mischievous.

"Excellent." Parr Fume said "After all the joke requires three people."

The Japanese martial arts relaxed, it looked like the two girls were going to set up a practical joke of some kind and they needed his help. It was not a first time Ranma would do something like that, he has been a part of countless more or less idiotic schemes set up by his father. He could go with it, but he would need to be careful not to land in a role of a scapegoat.

Xian Pu and Parr Fume explained they plan to Ranma. The dark haired Japanese girl grinned on that. It looked like it was going to be some fun.

There were two huts in the village, they occupants were some really hot headed warriors. They also hated each other with a passion. Both of them had night shift and were sleeping it off. Xian Pu and Ranma were to create a distraction, by pretending to get into a fight.

"Come back here, outsider girl." Shouted Xian Pu, running after Ranma with a mean looking _dao_ scimitar. As both of them were jumping and running around with a great display of skill they've gathered quite an audience, and had an attention of everyone around.

Parr Fume used the occasion to tie a near transparent fishing line to both doors. Then she threw two stones both of them causing a loud thump noise.

Both of the angry, sleepy amazon warriors opened their doors. Noting that it's just some sort of weird commotion caused by teenagers they shut their doors. Only when one of them tried to, she would open the others door. It quickly became a contest of doors being slammed and opened, then it went into verbal contest of insults between the two of them. As both of them tried to find out what caused the strange behavior of the doors both Xian Pu and Ranma ran close to them, cutting the line and running away with it. Behind them shouts of the two warriors erupted into full verbal battle.

The three girls ended behind another hut, laughing really hard. They've done quite well with the joke. Andy Larkin would be proud of them. They've looked at each other, before erupting with one more fit of laughter.

"That one was priceless." Parr Fume was the first one to able to talk "Thanks for help Ranma, without you girl that would be impossible to pull. In my eyes you've earned the full respect of amazon teenager."

"Yeah." Xian Pu added "You are now one of us. What is that you're practicing with great-grandmother ? I've seen your training with _sifu_ Rita but not your special training."

"I'm trying to learn _Kachū Tenshin Amaguriken."_ explained Ranma, fighting last bits of laughter down.

Both of the Chinese girls were looking on her like if she was some kind teen idol. In their eyes the Japanese martial artist really was one.

"You're learning Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire ?" Xian Pu was amazed "That's really incredible, great-grand mother said I should train at least two more years before I could attempt to master it."

"How good are you at that already ?" Parr Fume added. She actually tried the technique once, all by herself and she didn't manage to pull even a single chestnut.

"I've made some progress. I've pulled half of the bag yesterday, Elder says I should be able to pull it by the end of next week." Ranma answered.

Xian Pu and Parr Fume looked at each other. "Ranma, we will help you in your training from now on."

The Japanese girl placed her tiny hand in the air between them. "Friends ?" She asked. The two other girls placed their hand on hers "Friends." Both confirmed.

From the next day on Xian Pu and parr Fume sparred with her during Rita's weapon training. Ranma found out that the two girls were equally as crazy about martial arts as he was. While he was better than either of them in unarmed fighting when it came to weapons he was on equal ground, but he was a fast learner and with the help of two girls he was getting a lot better.

Kuh Lohn was quite satisfied with Ranma finding friends with her great-granddaughter and Parr Fume. In case she decided to make a full amazon out of Ranma and keep her in village a bond of friendship would make it much easier. She allowed the girls to both join in meditation training and even to begin training in the _Kachū Tenshin Amaguriken_ technique.

Within the next week the three girls, two real, and a temporary one became inseparable.

 **XXX**

It was close to the end of Ranma's second week in village when Kuh Lohn took all three girls for a meditation session further from the village, to a mountain pass. She explained the need to remain incredibly quiet the whole time. It was very unstable ground and any kind of noise could create an avalanche of stone boulders. By needing to remain silent the place created a great spot for meditation.

The boy was slowly increasing his skill in meditation. His progress both in learning weapon style and special technique was quite remarkable, but when it came to spiritual part of the Art he proved to be a much slower learner. He managed to master the butterfly training and learn some patience. He could enter a deep meditative trance and was able to gain a learning state, a form of mediation that increased concentration and boosted long term memory. He was however still a long way from being able to control his _Ki_ on conscious level. Yet he should be able to learn some easier techniques.

Right now all three friends were meditating over the unstable pass, along with their elder and a tag along goddess. Then they heard someone under them, behaving far to loudly for their own safety.

Kuh Lohn quickly and very quietly commanded to end the session and check what was happening. A group of four people were passing under them. They were rather noisy. A blonde man, perhaps of thirty odd years who looked nothing like an Asian. A woman, slightly younger than him was also blonde. There was a pair of children with them, a boy and girl. They were talking amongst themselves, laughing and clearly enjoying it very much, oblivious to the danger they were in.

"We need to warn them." Xian Pu whispered "They may be outsiders, but they are in great danger."

"We need to get down to them, but slowly and quietly." The elder confirmed with a quiet whisper "They are tourists, American I guess from the language they talk."

The amazon group started to climb down when they saw that the little girl tripped and fell. Then she started to cry, very loudly. The cry echoed through the mountain pass, and a loud rumble could be heard. An avalanche of boulders started to fall down.

"Xian Pu, Parr Fume, Ranma." The elder quickly commanded, the avalanche being loud enough that there was no need to whisper anymore "I'll deal with the boulders, you take them to safety."

She became a blur moving with incredible speed, using her walking stick like a sort of a spring to jump from one boulder to another. She had only to touch them a single time to make it explode into pebbles. The amazons and Japanese martial artists quickly came down, each grabbing one of the tourists and with series of quick jumps taking them out of the risky situations. But as there were only three of them, and four tourists, the young blonde woman was left behind.

One of the boulders sailed into the air right above her. Kuh Lohn was already ready to jump onto it like a white haired ancient slash of destruction. The end of her stick landed in a crack and her jump was from perfect. She managed to touch the boulder, yet instead of small, safe pebbles it exploded into cloud of sharp stone splinters, that would hit the American blonde. The elder looked in horror, unable to do anything to save the last of the tourists from being impaled by the rain of stone.

Ranma was already in the air, coming between the woman and deathly cloud. There was only a second to react.

" _Kachū_!" She was now exactly on right spot.

" _Tenshin_ !" The boy, currently pretending to be a girl, trained really hard and was so close to finally mastering he technique. He needed only something to push him through. Something like a person in danger.

" _Amaguriken !" E_ choed through the mountain pass. Her tiny, slender arms turned into blur, snatching stone splinters with impossible speed. She landed a second later holding every single shard with her hands, blood was trickling from her hands where the sharp stone pierced her skin, but both Japanese girl and the blonde tourist were safe.

She dropped the stones, grabbed the woman taking her to a safe place where rest of her family waited.

While Kuh Lohn talked to the Americans Xian Pu and Parr Fume took care of their friend. They started to tend to her wounded hands and arms.

"That was amazing, Ranma" said Xian Pu, as she dressed the wounds on her left arm "A perfect _Amaguriken !_ You pulled it so effortlessly."

"Good doing there sister." Parr Fume joined to the praise, tending to Ranma's right arm. "Thanks to you the family is safe, you've saved the woman's life."

"That was really nothing." he tried to sound humble, without much success however "It is a martial artists duty to protect those in need."

The elder finished talking with the Americans, sending them on a new route, one that would take them away from _Jusenkyo_. She had to refuse taking any money they offered, but as it turned that they stayed in Japan she wrote their address, just in case. She jumped on her stick to Ranma.

"I'm proud of you, student." She praised him... her... it was always complicated. Sometimes it was easy to forget that the girl before was not just a tomboy, but a real boy. "You've pulled _Kachū Tenshin Amaguriken_ , but what's more important you did not hesitate to place yourself in danger when someone's other life was at stake. You did great." Whatever reservations she held against Ranma were now gone, the martial artist proved his honor and dedication to the Art right before her eyes.

"Thank you, elder. Your words really mean much to me." Ranma was swimming in all praise he received. "How did you do that trick with taking down those boulders ?" Ever the martial artist asked.

"That is what you will learn next." Kuh Lonh decided " _Bakusai Tenketsu_. The Breaking Point attack."

Thus did the first part of Ranma training as an amazon warrior end.

 **XXX**

"Is this Tokyo ?" Someone asked him in Japanese.

An old, Chinese man with white hair and long white beard turned surprised. He was dressed in loose purple outfit with a red sash. Someone sneaked right on him as if he teleported.

"No, certainly not." He answered, nothing that his own Japanese got a bit coarse, he didn't use it for quite a time. "You are in Hong Kong."

He took a good look on strange boy before him, Tall, muscular, with unkempt hair held only by a tiger stripped bandana. Judging by his moves and stance he was a practitioner of _kempo_. According to the smell the boy was in desperate need of a bath.

"Hong Kong ?" The Japanese boy mused "I'm still in China ? Ranma must be in Japan already ! I must find him !"

"What do you plan to do when you find this, Ranma ?" The Chinese old master could sense vengeance in boy's voice.

"I will kill him ! Because of him I have seen Hell !" He shouted on the old man.

"A quest of revenge then." He put his fingers into his beard "Did you dig two graves ?"

" I don't understand. One will be enough for Ranma !" He looked strangely on the old Chinese man.

"I'm not surprised you don't understand." The boy was young so he wouldn't know how vengeance could destroy a man "But old people teach and pass, young learn and live."

"Teach ?" The Japanese boy asked "You're a martial artist _sensei_ ?"

"I'm indeed a master." He could give some lessons to the boy, all his students have moved a while ago and he didn't have much time left. "I'm Gen, I could teach you my Art."

"Hibiki Ryoga." The boy introduced himself "It will be an honor to learn from you."

[Author Notes:

My first update to my first story ! I feel like I should open a bottle of champagne.

Chapter 2 is the first part of Ranma's stay amongst amazons. Due to the amount of both training and character development I wanted to include I've secided to split the arc.

Next one is second part of Dances with Amazons, where Ranma will begin learning Breaking Point Attack and face a difficult choice.

I want to thank for all reviews and fav/follows, it really motivates me to keep writing when I see that someone is reading my badly scribbled attempts at creating a story.]


	4. Dances with Amazons Part II

**Ranma 1/2: A Ward of a Goddess**

 **Disclaimer:** The following is a fan written parody. Ranma ½ belongs to Rumiko Takahashi, Viz Media, Studio Deen, Shogakukan and Madman Entertainment. Oh My Goddess! belongs to Kōsuke Fujishima, Kodansha, Dark Horse Comics and Madman Entertainment. Other IP used have their respective owners as well, I do not own characters and events and they are used without permission. Support the official release, and don't sue me.

[Cold Opening:

Two women were standing on concrete floor of a parking lot. One was a purple haired, stunningly attractive Chinese. The second one a gorgeous, petite, dark haired Japanese. Both were dressed in dark trench coats.

"Shampoo, girl, it's been a while." The Japanese woman began "Maybe we should grab a drink, in sake of good old times ?"

"Shampoo no see good times." The Chinese woman answered in some form of a crippled Japanese pidgin "Shampoo only see husband stealing Japanese slut."

The purple haired woman pulled a _dao_ scimitar from under her trench coat. She had a vicious grin on her face.

"Shampoo, girl, that was like, two hundred years ago ?" She remarked that the Chinese woman could hold a grudge better than she could learn languages. "No chance of simply letting it go forgotten and grabbing that drink ?" She looked at her opponent, there was no chance indeed.

The dark haired sighed as she pulled her own _jian_ sword. First she would have to chop that nice purple haired head off. Then she would be drinking alone.

"There can be only one !" Shouted the Chinese woman as she went for an attack.

Ranma-chan turned her small, beautiful face towards camera.

"Previously on Highlander ½..." said her sweet voice.

Ranma and Genma left Jusenkyo. They found their way to Chinese Amazon Tribe, where the middle-aged martial artist was captured and his son received an offer. He would get a training on a condition of staying as a girl for whole month. Within two weeks of training he managed to master _Kachū Tenshin Amaguriken,_ develop weapon skills and make some friends. After saving an American tourist from certain death he was now ready to begin training in _Bakusai Tenketsu_. There were also many things to discover about his cursed form.]

 **Chapter 3**

 **Dances with Amazons Part II**

This was one of places he spent most time in. His entire life was an endless travel with his father. From one place to another. Visiting _dojo_ and training grounds all through Japan. Ranma could barely remember the face of his own mother. He had very little education, the longest he had been in a single school was three months and that was only because his father was ill during that time. Ten years of his life was just a single journey and training.

That was not how a child should grow up. The boy knew Art very well, but he didn't know much about life. Peorth was always worried of what Genma was doing. He tried to raise his son into a monument dedicated to martial arts. Monuments are build for those who died, changing someone into a living one was always a bad idea. In her opinion the time Ranma was spending right now was the most important one in his life. He was learning more about life and it was changing him.

Over two weeks as a girl. He spent so long in a cursed form that Ranma was forgetting how to act boyish. He caught himself on giggling several times. Men certainly shouldn't go like that, they should laugh instead. Last morning, when dressing up he caught himself on thinking how he would look in red instead of usual teal. Another certainly female thought. He only needed to refer to himself as she, or start looking after boys like Xian Pu or Parr Fume and it would make him lost to manhood. That was a funny idea, one that would trouble him a lot just some time ago. But since he regained his connection with his own femininity it was not something he would be afraid of anymore. The strangest part of every morning in amazon village was that he felt better in his cursed body, like he was adapting to it. But this day was different, he awoke in foul mood and from the very morning Ranma was developing an epic headache. He was sure that was an effect of the rice wine Xian Pu snatched to celebrate his mastering of the _Kachū Tenshin Amaguriken_ technique. Cursing the lack of an aspirin in this backwater place he went for yet another day of training.

The morning weapon training was dedicated to ranged practice. He was doing great when it came to using sticks. Not only he mastered the amazon variant of _Escrima_ , he was already adopting it to Anything Goes. He combined the style with strong kicks and was developing the use of weapons in midair. The whip was okay as well, Ranma could avoid hitting himself three times out of four. Chakrams were something different. They were a difficult weapon, as the sharp edge made it hard to hold them. The underarm throw was the most common method he practiced, this way he could throw a whole stack of the discs rather fast. He was also training in different method of using this weapon, called _tajani_. The practitioner of this technique had to twirl the disc on his index finger, letting it build a good speed and throw it with a flick of wrist. This method gave chakram a greater range and cutting power at a cost of taking more time to throw. But it also gave another possibility, he could fight with stick in one hand, while preparing his ranged weapon with another. It was very difficult, but the point of training was to learn. There was another problem with chakrams, one he didn't really understand, every time he used them he had to fight down a very strange urge, somehow Ranma felt like he should be yodeling.

With a loud thump he placed another missile into the green bamboo pole before him. Out of seven shoots he placed four on target, two near and only a single miss. Certainly better than the last time. He thought he would do better if it wasn't for the headache, he felt terrible. Ranma looked to his left, waiting for Parr Fume to shoot from her bow. The tall Chinese girl was an excellent archer and was good with spear. She was also a very smart girl, with good grasp of both Japanese and English. While below either him, or Xian Pu in actual combat skill she was an excellent tactician, so whatever she lacked as a fighter she more than compensated with her brains. Xian Pu was sitting behind them, waiting for her own chance to practice with throwing daggers. As Parr Fume scored yet another bulls eye Ranma-chan went to get his chakrams.

Then someone hugged her.

"Xian Pu ! Oh Xian Pu." Said the person attached to him. A _bishonen_ looking boy with shoulder long black hair, dressed in a robe with enormous sleeves.

Ranma-chan was not in the good mood. On usual day she would just push him away, but today she felt like something dragged through a minefield. The Japanese part time girl unleashed _Amaguriken._ Parr Fume quickly interrupted the mayhem as she towed her new friend away.

"Lemme at him ! Lemme at him ! I'll splat him ! I'll rock him and sock him !" Parr Fume was barely able to hold the tiny girl "Let me go, I'll give him the kiss of death !" That was a very bad day to make Ranma angry.

"Let her go." Xian Pu smiled an evil looking grin as she moved towards immobile Chinese boy "She'll release me from that pest." Then she began to stomp him into ground.

"Actually who is that ?" Ranma relaxed a bit. Few seconds of violence helped him a bit with headache.

"That's Mu Tsu. He's so in love with Xian Pu." Parr Fume explained, as she let the tiny girl free "It would be a great love story but it is a one sided, unrequited affair " She wanted to explain that Xian Pu hated the boy, but it was unnecessary. The way her friend kept stomping the boy spoke for itself. "He has very poor eyesight, even glasses don't help much and he's to proud to wear them most of time." She continued explaining.

"Shouldn't we, kinda help him ?" Ranma looked at the destruction Xian Pu was busy bringing on Mu Tsu. "Though it already might be to late."

Both her and Ranma dragged Xian Pu away from the poor boy, who didn't look like he was going to make it. To their surprise Mu Tsu not only survived, he was able to stand up. The Chinese boy pulled a pair of thick glasses. He looked again on the Japanese girl.

"I'm very sorry I mistook you for Xian Pu." He scratched the back of his head "You must be Ranma, the Japanese girl Elder Kuh Lohn is training ?"

"Yeah, that's kinda me." He felt he should apologize as well "Sorry for pummeling you. I kinda overreacted a bit."

"No hard feelings here." Mu Tsu was recovering astonishingly fast "Xian Pu hit me worse, many times, so I have good stamina and pain tolerance."

"So you're in love in her, despite that she acts like a violent maniac ?" Ranma was a bit surprised.

"She is going to be my bride. She is strong, wonderful and beautiful..." The Chinese boy started a rant about his undying love for the purple haired amazon girl, Ranma actually stopped listening after first thirty seconds. He understood martial arts, but love, he couldn't grasp it. He noted however disgust on face of his Chinese friend, it really looked like she would consider a lobotomy as a good alternative to ever becoming a bride to the poor sighted martial artist.

"Xian Pu, has he ever challenged you for your hand ?" Ranma learned a bit about strange customs of _Joketsuzoku_ , the Kiss of Marriage and the Kiss of Death _._ One of them was that when a boy would want to marry an amazon warrior he would need to challenge her to a fight. If he won the warrior would need to give a Kiss of Marriage. The custom was in place even in case of an outsider male. So if Ranma was a boy when he entered the village and instead of helping in his father capture he would decide to fight Xian Pu for the feast he would be her husband right now. It would be even worse if he fought Xian Pu as a girl. She would then give him a Kiss of Death. It was not a threat, it was a promise. The Chinese girl would chase him to the ends of world so she could kill him. Instead of having her as friend, he would get a mortal enemy, rather than getting training, he would be running across all of China with a vengeful amazon tracking him.

"He did, when I was three years old. I defeated him, so he can't challenge me again. I have to accept him and that is never going to happen." Xian Pu answered, trying to ignore the endless rant "It's a good thing we can't fight again. Mu Tze is quite strong, he even earned a title of amazon warrior. It's very rare for a male to be one. He is a practitioner of dark magic and knows a strong style. I think I might loose against him."

Dark magic ? Strong style ? Ranma would need to to see for himself what the Chinese boy was able to do, he was interested. He would act as soon as he got rid of that terrible headache.

 **XXX**

Back in the forest, this time it was not a camp fire and chestnuts. Ranma was now tied with rope and suspended from a tree. Since it was his gorgeous cursed form that was undergoing the training the view was pretty nice. As the rope passed in several interesting places it left very little to imagination, most producers of dirty movies would gladly sell their souls to able to film right now. The only thing Ranma was able to move was her right hand and even there he was only in control of one finger. On the opposite side of the tree there was a large boulder, suspended as well. All he had to do was find the weak point of the stone and shatter it with just a touch of finger. So far he tried nine times.

With a loud thump he failed his tenth attempt. And was smashed by the boulder yet again. This was a very brutal training. There were far easier and faster ways to learn this technique, but this was the most effective method. Exactly as important as _Bakusai Tenketsu_ was the side effect of the training. After being smashed by a boulder over and over again for duration of two weeks the practitioner gained absurd pain threshold and was able to shrug off any injury, short of .50 BMG armor piercing bullet.

Kuh Lohn explained all about _Bakusai Tenketsu_ to Ranma. Both concerning the training and limitations of the technique. It worked only on inanimate objects, stone was the easiest. The masters of the technique were able to use it on metal and it also did do wood. This time Peorth was not able to improve the method. If Ranma was to gain the secondary advantage he would need to train as intended. So every time the boulder swung the goddess only cringed, fighting the urge to get Ranma away from the sadist amazon teacher.

"Concentrate, student !" The elder shouted. "You won't be able to find the breaking point if you have other things on your mind." Something was going wrong with Ranma today, he had to have some problems, Kuh Lohn wondered what it was. She would need to talk with her student tomorrow.

With yet another smash into the boulder the training continued. This was only the first day.

 **XXX**

The next day Ranma awoke very early in even worse condition, if that was possible at all. He felt pain all over him. Then the neo girl looked down at her private parts. He saw blood.

"AHHHH !" Her shout awoke the whole village.

Kuh Lohn was first to arrive and find a one, very scared girl. She never saw Ranma in such a condition.

"What's wrong, student ?" she asked, hugging the trembling wreck before her.

"The training, I think it broke something inside, I'm bleeding from there..." Ranma spoke without much coherency, terrified like never in his life.

So that was the problem with Ranma yesterday. But she acted like it was her first. She couldn't be such a late... Kuh Lohn felt an urge to whack herself with her own stick. It was so easy to forget that just several weeks ago the girl before her was a boy, of course that was something new for him. It was a typical reaction of a girl having her first period. It must have been much harder for a boy to go through it.

"Come with me, child." Kuh Lohn spoke calmly to the girl, that just discovered a whole new world. "I need to give you the Talk."

She took the girl to her hut and then she began...

[The following scene has been removed.

As a censorship institution we found that Ranma learning about bees and flowers and proper hygiene is completely unnecessary to the story about martial arts. Him receiving his first sexual education as a she is not in good taste as well and had an important impact on our decision.

Sincerely yours

Censorship

P.S. We bet you didn't expect us.]

About an hour later Ranma left the hut. The girl was all red. It was a very good thing Ranma was just beginning his training in and didn't know any forms of _Shishi Hokodan_. An embarrassment fueled one that the girl could fire right now would cause an international incident and consternation on to why Chinese government carried a nuclear test. The elder waited few minutes, then she went after her student.

She found Ranma in the forest, sitting next to a stream. He was thinking. Menstrual cycles was not something he wanted to learn about his cursed form, yet it was an important lesson. If every girl and woman had to go through this each month... all ideas about woman being weak, that his father spend so long implanting into the boy, were now completely gone.

"Here, drink this." He heard behind him, as elder gave him a bowl of something brown "This will help you."

"Kami-sama above, this gruel stinks !" The thing in the bowl it looked like some kind of paste made out of... he didn't even want to think of what.

"It tastes even worse than it smells." Kuh Lohn still remembered when she drank that stuff for the first time, all those centuries ago. "But it is the best remedy a girl can find."

Ranma closed his eyes and tried not to breath as he drank the vile concoction. Judging by the expression on her face and going by the tradition that the best medicine had to have the worst taste that thing was worth fortune to pharmaceutic companies.

"When I agreed to stay girl for a month." He tried not to puke "I didn't know what I signed for. I could go without learning about period kinda well."

"That's what life is all about." Kuh Lohn said "Learning things we thought we don't need. Then discovering we couldn't go without them." She looked at her student, the girl was starting to turn green from the effects of the drink "I think martial arts will have to wait till you'll feel better. So today I will give you a different lesson, one about life. Do you know the story of hedgehog and fox ?"

"No." Ranma felt warmth inside him as the old ghoul's potion was starting to work.

"Once upon a time in an old forest..." The matriarch of _Joketsuzoku_ began "...there was a hedgehog. He was an old one and hardships of his life could be seen all over his muzzle. Deep in his bones he knew that this was the last autumn of his life. On his back he carried an apple. As he entered a clearing in the forest he saw a fox on the opposite side. It was an old fox, and the hardships of his life could be seen all over his muzzle. His once magnificent tail lost most of it's color. The fox did as well feel that it was the last autumn of his life. Both animals walked to center of the clearing.

"Hello there, hedgehog." said the fox "That's a mighty nice apple you have there."

"Oh thank you, fox." answered the hedgehog "You know I gave all my life to apple. I know everything about it, I know all it's colors, I know about it's taste and size. When it comes to apples, I'm the real expert." He looked at the fox "How did you spend your life ?"

"Well, hedgehog." The fox mused "I've run through the forest, drank water from every stream, crawled under every root and through every hole. I've tasted a bit of everything. That is how I've done with my life"

Then both of them went their own way.

But the hedgehog stopped after a few steps. How wise was the fox. He tasted a thousand things. He had all of memories. Truly the hedgehog thought he wasted his life, for all he had was just his apple.

However the fox did stop as well. How wise was the hedgehog, he dedicated himself to one thing, while the fox chased after a thousand, each turning but a smoke not worthy a single memory. Truly the fox thought he wasted his life, at least the hedgehog had his apple.

So both they went they way, each thinking that the other one made a better choice."

She ended her story to look on Ranma, now deeply lost in his own thoughts. The dark haired girl was sitting, with her head pressed against her knees. It lasted for a while, a moment of silence.

"I think I understand, elder." He spoke, with his female sweet voice "I'm still damn proud of my apple however."

"Pride. That is the source of your confidence, student." Kuh Lohn carried her lesson of life further "I understand you are ready to place your entire life on the altar dedicated to the Art. Yet unless you know what you are giving away it will be an empty sacrifice."

"Then, what is better ?" Ranma looked again on the passing water "Taste the apple, yet from time to time chase after smoke to find the difference ? There is something more to this. I want to be the best there is in martial arts."

"What will you do then ?" Kuh Lohn looked at the water "When you're the one on the top you realize that you're both alone and there is nothing more left to do. A hedgehog might know only one thing, but a very important one, yet he didn't understand it as well, student." The elder was ancient, she had seen nearly two hundred and fifty autumns herself and it was enough time to find a lot about life "I'll tell you something about martial arts. There will always be someone faster, stronger or with better technique. But it's a good thing. Without it, there would be no reason to push yourself to become better. This is what martial arts are all about, it's not the destination that is important, it's the journey you should be looking forward too. Whenever you conquer one mountain, you should seek another to climb on."

Ranma was silent. This all, what he learned today about girls and what he just heard from the Elder. That was... he lacked words to describe what it was. A lesson of life, or a way to find, what ? Happiness... perhaps ?

"The fox thought he wasted his life. Yet he didn't understood that a thousand small things are as important as one big. He never stopped to look at what he found but went on a chase, always looking for a new thrill. The hedgehog thought he wasted his life. Yet he didn't understand that one important thing is worth all the smoke in the world. He dedicated himself to an apple never being able to look on the tree it fell from. Perhaps if the fox had ever found one idea he could give more than to others, perhaps if the hedgehog ever learned than beside an apple there is also an orange, both of them would pass happy. " The Elder finished.

"I kinda guess in all, one needs to find balance." Ranma stood up and went towards the village, leaving Kuh Lohn "Thank you, Elder. This is... I think, kinda important."

Peorth watched Ranma for a moment. What was happening would have far more impact than the mending she gave to her ward back a _Jusenkyo_. The boy would learn new philosophy. This would put him much further on the path to being a better person than everything before. She started to float back behind her ward, when she heard the old mummy.

"I think we two should have a talk as well." The elder casually said, aiming at the general direction of the mysterious presence.

The goddess turned surprised. She dropped her veil. Kuh Lohn eyes widened in shock at who was before her.

"A... a goddess ?" She expected an ancestor ghost, or a nature spirit at most , but not one of higher beings.

" _Oui_. Allow me to introduce myself." She was a customer service specialist and she really perfected the art of a good first impression. She was missing the opportunity as it was rarely present for the last ten years she was a guardian spirit to Ranma. "I'm goddess first class..., second category..., unlimited..., Peorth." she finished with her trademark mid air spin.

"I must apologize then." Ku Lohn didn't expect to find herself in a presence of such being. Truly it looked like Ranma had powerful allies "I've seen the scar in Ranma's aura and I thought you've might be the cause. I don't understand however how did the boy end with your presence ?"

"I'm appointed as a guardian spirit, on behalf of a wish made by his mother." The goddess explained.

"I won't then stop you from your duty." Said the elder as Peorth once again veiled herself invisible. That changed the game. The last person she would like to antagonize was a goddess. If she was to keep Ranma she would need to change tactics, to make it appear beneficial to the boy. She had to call the council for advice.

 **XXX**

It was a hot day, more than two full weeks after he got to the village. Genma was working on the rice field. Saotome meant "rice-planting girl" and karma was a bitch. He knew for what sins he would have to work on the field one whole month, but it didn't mean he was going to like it. All of this he did for Ranma.

Every person that knew him would be shocked. The middle-aged martial arts hated work. If he could he would sleep all day, taking breaks only to eat.

The hard work was however doing him some good. He lost weight, he found that it was easier to breath and he was regaining his strength.

Genma did all of that for one reason. While it didn't look like it, he cared for his son. The not so stocky anymore man didn't want to loose him to amazons, so he used the time to think.

He already had several plans in case the old ghoul could somehow turn Ranma into a girl. Most of them required to steal his son and escape the village intact. That would be the easy part. The hard part would be undoing whatever the mummy could do to the boy. He knew little about brainwashing, but he could learn. Maybe he could buy some pamphlet about deprogramming, or ancient scroll.

There would be one person he could turn to. His master, but that was an option even worse than amazons. He spend sixteen years working on one thing. Preventing Him from ever being able to warp his son. Even if Ranma was to become an amazon, he would at least be safe here. The master was sealed, but... Genma would need to have a plan in case He would come back. Staying on the road was no longer an option and the last thing he wanted was to give Ranma to the old pervert. Yet He would have a strong leverage over him. What Genma needed was a good plan and he began to form one.

It started to rain. Genma growled as he turned into panda. Now he would be used as ox and he would have to pull the plow again.

The panda pulled a sign, it read "The things I do for love."

 **XXX**

Ranma was resting. With the help of the gruel he had to drink his condition became manageable. But the training was out of question. He was bored. Xian Pu and Parr Fume were training _Amaguriken_ on their own and he didn't feel like hanging with them. Stretching in the sun the Japanese boy, now turned girl was falling asleep.

"Sorry I'm interrupting, but could I ask your advice ?" Ranma opened eyes to find that he was nagged by Mu Tsu, or the blind idiot, as Xian Pu called him.

"The only thing you're interrupting is my attempt to die from boredom." He was ready to welcome any form of distraction.

"Well, you're a girl." Mu Tsu begun, he missed it by that much. Like from _Nyucheizu_ to New York. "So I've wondered maybe you could tell me, what I'm doing wrong. I mean I'm dedicated to Xian Pu, I worship the ground she walks on and she still rejects me."

Ranma had no idea how a girls mind worked. But after two weeks of being one he could offer some insight. Besides he knew Xian Pu a bit and was able to find a problem with the courting method the Chinese boy was using. He was about to branch into Anything Goes Dating Service.

"Xian Pu... She is a bit complicated. At every step the girl says she hates you. That's because she doesn't like all that attention." Ranma tried to understand an another girl and he was succeeding. The fact that curse of _Jusenkyo_ affected not only plumbing, but also wiring helped a bit "The girl you love is a huntress. She needs to stalk her prey. The more he will escape and resist, the more she will fall for him."

"I need to become... a prey ?" Mu Tsu mused. This might be the key to Xian Pu's heart ? But that was against all he knew. Then again it's not like he made much success so far. "How I can do that ?"

"Stop nagging her. Start to ignore her. Move like you've got over your love." That at the moment was Anything Goes Matchmaking "She is so used to your affection that the moment you stop... Xian Pu will take it as a hit to her ego, she won't be able to resist finding why. Once the chase begins... You will need to wait till she kinda can't back up. Then she will be all yours."

Somehow it made perfect sense to Mu Tsu. After all that was an advice coming from another girl. Since the Chinese boy was actually desperate enough to try advice coming from another guy, he didn't miss it this time.

"Uhmm well thanks for the advice. I will try your idea." He said.

"Mu Tsu, I heard that you are an amazon warrior and it's pretty rare for a guy to be one. Parr Fume said you know some awesome style, Hidden Weapon or something. I wonder, could you show me a bit ?" When it came to Martial Arts Ranma was ever curious.

"Of course." That was not much to ask of him.

They walked to the beam again. They waited few minutes, then when it was clear Mu Tsu jumped on the beam and began his demonstration. First he pulled several blades from his sleeves, performing _kata_ with them. Then the Chinese boy jumped in air attacking with chains. After that he pulled _dao_ and later a spear. It looked like the young martial artist had entire arsenal hidden in his pockets.

"That was amazing." Ranma looked on the Chinese martial artist with newly gained respect "Where do you keep all those weapons ? This is some kind of _Ki_ trick ?"

"Well, Ranma." He shouldn't reveal secrets of his Art, but he was indebted to the Japanese neo girl. "No amount of _Ki_ could do that. This is actually possible thanks to dark magic. Hidden Weapon Style is old, it came from Caribbean. Supposedly it was invented by a pirate named Guybrush who was in a need to carry massive amounts of strange items. The legends say the development of style involved Voodoo, thirty dead guys and one woman..."

Ranma was very skeptical. He could believe in three thousand years of tradition, but not in voodoo pirates. Mu Tsu saw that the girl was not falling for it.

"Sorry about the joke. It's really dark magic. The rest I've just made up." Mu Tze just got an idea "I could teach you a bit. Even if just how to hide a few items at once. Just think how much hooked would Xian Pu become when she will start to see me training with other girl."

"You're starting to catch up." Ranma grinned a bit. Inside he screamed and danced in glee. He was to learn another new technique "I'd like some training from you as well."

 **XXX**

After problems created by his cursed form were gone he could finally return to training. Weapon training as usual went for the morning. After that it was the boulder again. Evening it was meditation.

The practice that was boring at the beginning was now becoming normal to him. He also enjoyed it, as he found how much it helped him. He was starting to find balance. It was as elder told him, you think you don't need it, but once you can do it, you wonder how could you go without before. Once again he fell into deep meditation.

Kuh Lohn was satisfied with progress her student was making. She could whack him on head and it wouldn't break him out. The boy was absorbing martial arts like a sponge. He had so much potential, it would be a real waste just to hand him back to Genma. Whether as a boy, or a girl he would have no problem in becoming an amazon warrior. The problem was on how to make him stay, Ranma had a very keen sense of duty and honor and despite not being enthusiastic about whatever awaited him back in Japan he felt that he needed to travel. She couldn't make any moves against him also, the risk of antagonizing someone as powerful as a goddess was not one the elder was willing to take. Perhaps the council meeting would be able to find solutions.

"You are doing really well, student." Kuh Lohn praised the teenager martial artist "It's time to begin something more difficult. This time when you start meditation, don't close yourself, start opening. I want you to expand your senses."

Once again Ranma tried. He was again in trance and he tried. First it was just sound around, but he kept pressing the border... Then he started to hear sounds in the hut and beyond it, steps of people, their breath. He was able to keep it just for a second before loosing it.

"This is really exhausting." The Japanese girl said, feeling sweat all over herself "It will take a while to learn how to keep it longer."

"As with everything, student" His ancient teacher answered "But every journey begins with a first step."

 **XXX**

Mu Tsu was moving through the village. Today he would begin training Ranma, the outsider girl from Japan, in Hidden Weapon Style. He talked about it with elder Ku Lohn and was surprised that she not only allowed him to do it, but even commended him for his initiative. The Chinese boy looked behind him, smiling to himself, Xian Pu was still shadowing him. So far he was avoiding and not paying any attention to the girl of his dreams. At first he was afraid she would be happy, but it was exactly as Ranma told him. It looked like she wanted to find out what has changed. Mu Tsu would just need to remain patient and wait till she makes a move she won't be able to back out of and then she would be his.

Xian Pu indeed took a strong blow to her ego. She was so used to constant admiration from Mu Tsu and it suddenly stopped. Xian Pu was thinking, unable to understand what changed, why was she ignored so much, was she not the most attractive and strongest ? She had to find out what was wrong with her. She was missing the attention she took for granted. The Chinese girl was walking right into a trap of love.

"So, Ranma, ready for the first training in Hidden Weapon Style ?" Mu Tsu asked. He was in great mood, even right now he could see Xian Pu, hiding behind a tree.

"Like I can wait." The girl was almost jumping in place. For Ranma learning new techniques was like getting presents on Christmas.

"As with every thing you will need to start with basics. Martial arts and _Ki_ you understand." Mu Tsu said, pulling necessary accessories from his sleeve "The most important part is mastering dark magic. I can't promise you I will be able to teach it. It took me two months to even begin practicing the style, but I will try as long as you're willing to follow. We might be able to make it in two weeks"

Peorth was going to enjoy this one. She wanted see the self proclaimed practitioner of dark magic in action. The kid would be able to do no more than just several parlor tricks. A properly awakened sorcerer would be able to see her thanks to witchsight. Though then it was Mu Tsu, who was able to see objects a hundred meters from him really well, but find only blur at closer range.

There were three types of magic. Low magic was the easiest one. It didn't require mana, nor awakening. The only requirement necessary was an open mind. To use low magic one had to accept a reality for what it really was. Human brain was an amazing thing, it was able to filter the world around into a version acceptable by everyone. What humanity believed was not necessary true. Low magic was possible by using the true principles of reality. Actually, she noted, humans were starting to develop some basic grasp of what low magic was, they called it quantum mechanics.

High magic was something different altogether. It wasn't based on using what others didn't understand. It required an access to mana, an astral energy and both weaving it and channeling to change the reality. For a goddess like her it was as easy as thinking, but a mortal would need to be awakened and use spells and gestures to properly command such forces.

Last there was celestial magic, the one she used to heal Ranma's mind and soul back at _Jusenkyo_. It was a true power incarnate. Even a being like Peorth needed spells to properly channel such forces. It used the power of true names in order to command spirits. This way she could not only change reality, but to make it dance on her whim. It was what angels and demons used and only the mightiest of human sorcerers could ever hope to master it.

Now Peorth was going to see what trick of reality was used by the Chinese martial artist.

"The Hidden Weapon Style uses entire arsenal of weapons. The trick lies in carrying all of them. Without the help of dark magic it is all but impossible." Mu Tsu pulled a _dao_ scimitar from one of his sleeves then hid it again in another.

"Now it will be your turn to try to do that." The Chinese martial artist placed two boxes in front of Ranma. They were enclosed, except a very small hole in front "Inside each of this boxes there is nothing but darkness." He pulled an apple "I'll place it inside one of these. Your task is to pick up the apple that is in the left box from the right one."

Peorth watched as Mu Tsu placed the apple inside a box. He did the trick correctly, displacing it into darkness. She was a bit impressed, it looked like the Chinese kid knew his trade well. Each and every item can be described by it's relationship to every other. Without anything to relate to an item would disperse, but it would gain an relationship through the act of observation. The trick was that in darkness you could not observe an item. The strongest relationship would then be the memory of one placing the item. That person however could displace the item into a darkness as general, for there was only one to begin with. That was how Mu Tsu was able to carry an entire armory in his sleeves, the items would not be there and yet still exist within his reach at the same time. The Hidden Weapon Style could be called a Schrödinger's Arsenal.

Ranma tried but without much success. "This is impossible, no matter how long I'm going to look for apple, it's in the other box."

"You're doing it wrong." Mu Tze remembered that he once said the same thing to his master. "Don't look for the apple. You must see it in the other box."

Ranma tried again. But he just couldn't find the apple in the right one, he knew that it was in the other one.

"Don't worry, it took me a lot of time to master that." Ranma's new teacher said "The more you will try to look for the apple the less you will find it. You need to forget where it is and see it where you want it to be." Mu Tsu pulled the apple from his sleeve, then placed it back into box.

For the next two hours he continued, but still had no success. But there was one important thing, Ranma Saotome never gave up.

Later that night, before going to sleep he decided to try something. He went into meditation and tried, not to expand his senses, but push them into the darkness all around himself. He felt... void. For a short second he stared into the abyss. The contact was broken very quickly.

"There is only one darkness." Peorth herd what Ranma said to himself, before falling asleep.

The next day Mu Tze prepared the boxes again. This time however Ranma was not trying to take them out of the box. The girl sat in front of boxes in lotus position and remained like that for an hour. The Chinese boy didn't understand what his part time new student was trying to do. Ranma suddenly opened his eyes, stood up and went to the box, then he pulled the apple from the darkness.

"I did it Mu Tsu !" The Japanese girl performed a complex victory dance.

Amazing, he had to spend two months to learn to do what the girl achieved in two days. He understood why the elder dedicated so much time to teaching her, she was a natural talent.

"Don't get too cocky girl." Mu Tsu tried to stop the dancing petite martial artist "This will get much more difficult from now on."

 **XXX**

So it went, until it was just four days left. In a matter of half week his time in amazon village would end. He really progressed in the time he was here. The boy was faster than ever, learned an amazing technique. He learned amazon style of weapon fighting. The young martial artist even learned basics of Hidden Weapon Style and was able to carry several items in darkness. Ranma was becoming better at meditation and while still away from channeling his _Ki_ he enjoyed the balance attained from his training. But one thing still eluded him. _Bakusai Tenketsu_. While the training made him tough he still couldn't find the breaking point.

"Ranma. Concentrate." Once again he heard the advice of his ancient mentor "You won't find find the breaking point just by looking for it."

Ranma went against the boulder one more time, this time the neo girl closed her eyes. Maybe this was about the same thing that the Hidden Weapon Style. Any fool can look at the boulder, only few could see. She felt a sudden blur in her head. That was it. The eyes of the girl opened and she saw thousands of lines running through the stone boulder incoming on her. They all met in a single place and he knew that was where had to hit...

Finally, he had done it. Kuh Lohn observed the rain of pebbles from the shattered boulder. Just in time, the other council members would arrive tomorrow. They had to discuss the fate of Ranma Saotome.

"I did it, elder." The boy, turned girl was happy "I finally did it."

"I never doubted you could do it, student." Kuh Lohn helped her get out of rope "I have a favor to ask of you. Tomorrow members of Amazon Council will arrive in village. It would mean a lot to me if you could offer a small show of skill you have learned both before and during your stay in our village."

"Of course, elder." Ranma said "I will be happy to perform a demonstration of my skill."

The four elders that Kuh Lohn summoned gathered at noon. They were eager to see what the newest protege of they fellow elder was able to do. The first impression was far from best, they saw a petite, dark haired Japanese girl. But only a second of observation was enough for the ancient masters to discover there was more in the teenager than just that. The way the girl moved was enough to tell that she was a warrior. The training area was prepared for the show, several training dummies were scattered, there was also green bamboo pole with marked spots and a boulder.

"Please, begin when you are ready" Kuh Lohn said softly, Ranma bowed to the elders.

The teenager martial artist began with several basic _kata_ developed from _kempo_. Neither of them was really difficult, but she went through the motions with great skill. She started to move faster, without loosing any bit of grace. Then she went into _kata_ of Anything Goes Martial Arts. This was something different altogether. Her style was designed for mid air combat, highly acrobatic and much closer to Art amazons practiced than to _kempo_. That was a show of jumps, flips and handsprings, full of elements from many other styles, from _taekwondo_ to _capoeira._ The young martial artist went to weapons next, first showing the skill she gained with rattan sticks. Those were indeed best choice for her, blindingly fast and effortlessly she performed multitude of attacks, mixing b _aston_ with array of powerful kicks and even carrying the weapon into show of midair combat mastery. Then the girl moved to whip, displaying her skill on training dummies, disarming them from weapons, or tripping them. For a last display of weapons she moved to the green bamboo, she did a fast backflip, pulling a chakram from her cleavage, using Hidden Weapon Style. She placed the first on the target and proceeded to throw six more missiles, missing only with the last one. Despite low grumpy noise she produced it was far from the end of her show. Ranma moved to a next training dummy, her tiny hands became a blur and there was an explosion of straw when her target was hit by hundred punches in a single second. Saving his last technique for final the petite martial artist moved close to a boulder, then shattered it into pieces with a single touch of her finger. Then she bowed to elders again.

"Thank you very much for this performance." Elder Sih Ilk said to the girl "We would like to discuss some things."

The elder council went to the main hall of largest hut in the village for their meeting. Ranma decided to go to his favorite spot, next to the stream in the forest. He had his suspicions on the reason Kuh Lohn invited other elders.

 **XXX**

"You were right to summon us" One of the elders began.

All five of the were now ready to decide what to do next. Kuh Lohn was sitting on her walking stick as usual.

Elder Sih Ilk, the youngest of them, barely fifty choose to sit on floor. She was a traveler, who spent most of her younger days carrying an important mission and returned wise beyond her years. No other elder ever doubted her place in the council. Elder Bo Doir, another miniaturized dried-up mummy took a chair for herself. Where Kuh Lohn was a teacher of warriors she was a teacher of healers. She held a mastery in herbal lore, acupuncture and pressure points greater than any other. Fourth of them, a small figure clad in heavy clothes that covered her totally was Elder Sa Ash. Other elders didn't even know how she looked like, or how old she really was. For each of the elders were ancient and each remembered days of their youth, when the most mysterious of them already was old. Last, but not least was Elder Ha Brus, the Archmage of the tribe, the only Amazon alive that practiced magic, who in her vanity used her skill to maintain a look of attractive granny.

"The girl... boy..." Elder Sih Ilk had problems with finding correct way to refer to Ranma, she decided to go by the form she saw her "She is everything you've told us. To hold so much skill at such a young age is remarkable. Strong in unarmed combat, good with weapons, able to use Hidden Weapon Style and she learned both K _achū Tenshin Amaguriken_ and _Bakusai Tenketsu_ in just a month. The girl is just at beginning of her way in Art and already more accomplished than some get through whole their life. The question is, how do we make her our own ?"

"If it was just a matter of changing the boy, making him fully embrace the curse of _Jusenkyo_ and getting him to accept staying with us then there would be no need to summon us." Elder Bo Doir said "There has to be something more in here."

"I presume that it has something to do with celestial presence that is accompanying him." Elder Ha Brus raised her voice, it carried a sultry tone that had some strange hypnotic effect "The girl will certainly live in interesting times. She both has a curse and a goddess that watches her every step." Her words raised some murmur amongst the elders.

"Yes, that is why I called your advice." Kuh Lohn spoke for the first time since the meeting began, her voice caused other elders to stop "Ranma is under protection of a first class goddess. It is not a force we should make an enemy of, as such being is more than capable of wiping anything. We cannot make moves that could be seen as aggressive, if we get him to be an amazon, he needs to make that choice himself. Ranma made friends here and if it were not for the matter that his father wants to be back in Japan in a matter of few days he could be convinced to stay in the village. While it's true that he is in no position to make any demands, it is a matter of family honor and the boy has a very fine sense of duty. I'm out of ideas what to do."

All five of them started to think. It was a tough situation. They didn't want to let such a talent slip out of their grasp, yet there was little they could do to keep Ranma.

"Dear council." Elder Sa Ash spoke. It was a rare occurrence, the most mysterious of them rarely said anything and when she did it was very important to listen very carefully, for she would say it only once "It is of uttermost importance that we get Ranma to be one of us. He is something rare. Someone like him is born only once every two hundred years and by some jest of destiny twice in a row such talent visits _Joketsuzoku_. This time we can't afford to make mistakes like we did with your _Airen_ , Kuh Lohn."

"You mean that the boy is... a Warmaster ?" Elder Bo Doir turned to the only one every other could call ancient.

"Not yet." Elder Sa Ash voice came again from under countless array of clothes "Last time He was already a Warmaster when he got here. This time we have a boy who didn't yet realize his true potential. We should be the ones to guide him. Once we have him of course."

"I have found a way." Elder Sih Ilk raised her voice "One that will satisfy the goddess. One that will bind Ranma's honor to us. I propose that we give the boy back to his father. The girl, we keep for ourselves."

Then she explained her plan in detail. All other elders smiled, it looked like her idea could work.

An hour later Kuh Lohn arrived by the stream, to talk to Ranma. The success of their plan hanged on the result of what was to happen right now. She had to approach this very carefully, for in the end the choice was to be taken by the Japanese boy.

"I knew I could find you here." She said jumping next to the girl.

"Yeah. I like this place, it helps me to think." Ranma-chan turned towards the white haired mummy "I guess you want me to stay as an amazon ? Sorry but I can't do that, this is kinda a matter of family honor, whatever idiotic ploy Pops prepared for me back in Japan I need to go."

"Would you even want to stay ?" Kuh Lohn walked very carefully. This would be a tough one.

"Part of me would love to stay. I've learned so much here." Ranma began talking "There is one more thing. Last ten years I was on the road, I even don't remember how my mother looks. I rarely stayed in one place for more than a week. I've changed so many schools that I've lost count. This is one of few times I stayed in one place for so long and I could grow to call this place home." the petite, gorgeous girl looked back at the stream "Part of me is afraid however. Staying here would mean abandoning who I was and concentrating only on who I could be. It would also mean staying a girl I think and while it is not as bad as it was a month ago I don't think I would want to become a female fully. I kinda miss being a boy."

"All that is what the council understands, student." Kuh Lohn was prepared for the most important moment, she could gain her for the tribe, or he would be lost forever "That is why we have an offer for you." She waited a second, before beginning "World outside is changing Ranma. The last hundred years saw more reshape than the millennium before. It will be altered even more in the next fifty, and it won't slow down. Unless we become a part of the world the tides of time will sweep us. Yet we don't want to take anything that could alter, or destroy us, we need to find a place that can show us what is beneficial and what is not. That place is Japan, where tradition, no less older than our clashes with modernity at every occasion, where the change is happening at the fastest rate in the world and yet where roots are placed in the old ways. To fully understand we need someone right there, someone who would be both a part of us and part of the world outside. This is where you come in, Ranma." She looked at her student, stopping for a second, before delivering the plan "We offer you a full adoption, becoming a member of the amazon tribe. You would then embark on the mission to help us understand the outside world, and adopt to it. But that would be just a beginning, we hope we can establish a colony in Japan and you could become the future matriarch of the Japanese Amazon Tribe."

"Elder... I'm… I... I don't even know what to answer." Ranma was awe struck by the offer. The amazons wanted for him to become one of them and yet travel to Japan. They would give him a mission. He would be trusted with responsibility. It was not a choice to be taken lightly. "Can I think about this for a moment ?"

"Of course, I'll be waiting at the village." She left Ranma alone, by the stream.

He was now completely lost. He didn't know what to do. The offer, what to make out of it. He did something he never did before.

"What should I do. Kami-sama what should I do ?" Ranma Saotome said a prayer.

"What your heart tells you." He heard a voice.

"Pe-Peorth-sama ?" he was surprised.

"You pray when you want to speak with the Almighty, when you want to be heard. But it works both ways. When you ever feel like talking you just need to pray." He couldn't see his guardian, but she could very well hear her.

"I don't know what to make out of offer. Should I take it, or should I pass on it ?" Ranma really needed some advice "It means to take on a responsibility. This would kinda change my life."

"Ranma, dear. What is wrong with taking responsibility ? What would be wrong with becoming an amazon ?" The goddess voice was like a beautiful melody.

"Nothing, I think." There was truth in what she asked him "But I don't know whether that would help me become a better person ?"

"Didn't being here already help ?" To ask the questions that needed to be asked, she would only need to guide her young ward "How much are you different now, from the boy you were a month ago ?"

Ranma looked back to who he was. Then he saw who he was becoming. After a month as a girl he would never see any female as weak. He learned some social skill and he progressed in Art far beyond he could achieve on his own, or even with help of his father. This was all possible thanks to amazons. He looked back at the passing water. Thinking once again.

"I want to take this chance" He prayed again "I just wonder where this will take me ?" Before his guardian was able to say anything he added "Don't tell me, I'd like to find out myself."

Half an hour later Ranma entered the elders hut.

"Have you reached a decision, student ?" Kuh Lohn turned to the Japanese girl.

"Yes, elder." Ranma smiled, ready to take on what destiny had prepared for him "I wish to become the first Japanese Amazon."

"Then tonight you will be adopted. You'll need to find two handmaidens..." Xian Pu and Parr Fume came in "... So I decided to invite this two on your behalf."

"Looks like you knew what I would choose." Ranma-chan smiled as the other girls grabbed her into some kind of dance of happiness.

Kuh Lohn watched them for a while, two Chinese girls were dancing around a third, singing some nonsense about crew and ship. Ranma did exactly what elder Sih Ilk expected, he played right into their hands, tomorrow he would no longer be an outsider. She would become an full member of the Amazon Tribe.

 **XXX**

It was at dusk when the ceremony begun. Twelve finest warriors were forming a circle, each with a torch in her hand. Inside the circle two chosen handmaidens were waiting. The tall Parr Fume and stunning Xian Pu. Both girls were dressed in green _cheongsam_. Ranma, dressed in red _cheongsam_ approached the circle. Two of the warriors let her in. The Japanese girl moved to the middle, where she knelt. Kuh Lohn, the matriarch of the village was waiting holding all necessary accessories.

"We gather here at the dusk to give our farewells to an outsider that lived with us. For at the next dawn we will welcome a new sister." Kuh Lohn began with a slow chant like voice. This was a rare ceremony, for the adoption was the greatest honor amazons could offer.

"We call on the names of oldest gods. The guardians of our tribe ever since we escaped the sacking of Troy. Come and be a witness, great Hera. Come and be a witness, wise Athena. Come and be a witness swift Artemis." The elder continued to chant as the twelve warriors started to sing in a language long abandoned.

"The one that has come to us as Ranma is now kneeling before you. Let her become one of us !" The elder called first of handmaidens to her.

Xian Pu closed to the elder and took a bowl of rice. Then the girl moved close to Ranma, she knelt before her and gave the bowl to the Japanese girl.

"Never again will you go hungry." Said the elder as Ranma ate a bit of rice "But from this day you will hunt with us."

Then the elder called the second handmaiden.

Parr Fume closed to elder. She took the weapons, a pair of ebony sticks, each charred and hardened in fire, adorned with carefully carved horses. A leather bullwhip and seven chakrams. She placed them before Ranma.

"Never again will you go defenseless." Said the elder as Ranma touched each of the weapons "But from this day our enemies will become yours."

The two handmaidens then started to braid Ranma hair. He already carried his hair long and didn't get a haircut for last month. In female form his hair was also more shiny and softer. Her long pony tail was changed into pigtail and two bangs of hair were gathered to form two loopies running in front of girls face, held in place by a pair of jade clips.

"When the day comes that we will assault the gates of Hades..." the elder said in a ceremonial voice. The two handmaidens grabbed the final piece. A large cauldron they both carried to Ranma. There was also a long, clean needle.

"I will be there. Neither the depths of the Styx, nor three heads of Cerberus will stop me. So I place my oath." Ranma took the needle and hit her own hand, then she let a single drop of blood fall into the cauldron. "My blood is of your blood." This was it, he was to become an amazon warrior.

"There would be no one else we would rather have by our side in a day of final fight..."The elder said the final words of ceremony as Ranma stood up from her knees"...Than the blood of our blood and a sister of _Joketsuzoku_ , Lou Xion !"

It was then done, if someone would tell Ranma that he would receive a name of Lotion and be proud of it he would start to laugh. But a month ago he was a very different person. This was the moment that completed the change, from selfish, arrogant jerk into a warrior of the Chinese Amazon tribe.

 **XXX**

It was time to say goodbyes. He said his farewells to Xian Pu, Parr Fume and Mu Tsu. He then left the village, coming along with his father and elder Kuh Lohn.

Genma was feeling like a newborn. A whole month of hard work allowed him to return to shape. He lost his belly, muscles again played under his skin. He was no longer the stocky person, but once again looked like a martial artist he was.

But his change was nothing compared to one his son went through. He was a different person now. Ranma Saotome grew during the month he spend with Amazon Tribe. It was a spiritual growth and development that was much more important than physical one.

After few days of fast travel, possible only to three martial artists they reached city and airport. Kuh Lohn and Genma lost sight of Ranma as soon as they hit the terminal. Short while later a young man, of average height approached them. He was dressed in Chinese style red sleeveless shirt and black pants and was a handsome rogue.

"Haven't seen you for a while, boy." Genma laughed "Finally decided to stop playing a girl ?"

"Well, well, student." Kuh Lohn had her first chance to see Ranma's true form, for the sake of the sorry excuse of his father she was speaking Japanese "You clean up nicely. If I was only two hundred years younger..."

"Don't scare me, Elder." The boy laughed as well "I kinda missed seeing my self in a mirror."

"This is for you two." she pulled two bars of soap. "The waterproof soap, it should prevent any accidents on the plane, so you two should get washed before." Kuh Lohn waited for Genma to go to wash himself first, then she pulled a book "This is the history and customs of your tribe, Japanese translation. But that's not everything. Inside you will find papers that identify you as a member of a tribe and an adult Chinese woman. There is also address where you can post your reports, they will be then delivered from Shanghai to the village. Finally you will find details for bank account that was created in Japan, it will have an amount of money sent every month and you are to use them as your operational budget."

"You've prepared all this in such a short time ?" The Japanese boy asked.

"One of perks of having friends in Communist Party, Lou Xion." Kuh Lohn smiled.

"Thank you, Elder." Ranma bowed deeply "For everything."

Then the both martial artists went to catch their plane. Once inside Genma looked at his son. He knew what happened in the village and that Ranma returned to Japan as an amazon warrior with a mission. He lacked the details, but those he would work out eventually. Somehow Kuh Lohn had done all she promised him, gave him back his son, yet she also did all she wanted, the old ghoul kept his daughter.

The plane began it's flight towards Japan.

A young man entered on boat that would take him back home. He trained hard with the Chinese master and he felt ready to take his revenge.

Tendo Akane had just finished dealing with idiot boys that kept attacking her for last three weeks. Then she gave some flying lessons to Kuno. She wondered whether all boys were such idiots, or maybe there would be one different from the bunch ? She certainly wished to meet that one.

Tendo Nabiki looked at her notes. The photos of her sister sold well, but the profits were not what they used to be. She certainly wished for a new business opportunity.

Tendo Kasumi had no wishes. She knew to be careful with those, because sometimes someone, or something might hear them. Instead she was doing her chores. The laundry basket looked heavy, so giggling like she had just done something naughty she casually levitated it next to herself.

There was something peculiar about Chaos. They say it does not need recipe. Only ingredients. With those available right now it was going to erupt like a volcano.

[Author Notes:

Finally done with Amazon Village arc. A bit of explanation. In _Jusenkyo_ I removed one of main motives canon!Ranma had, finding the cure. So I felt I should give story!Ranma a different one. A mission he would carry in Japan. This is the first reason why I made Ranma an amazon. I always felt that becoming an amazon, by either joining as a female warrior, or accepting his marriage with Shampoo was one of possible endings to manga. So I've decided to make that ending a part of the beginning and have story!Ranma as an amazon when he arrives in Tendo _Dojo_. This allows me to explore the Amazon Tribe in more detail, without pushing for RanmaxShampoo pairing.

Once again thanks for reviews. I hope to be able to continue writing my story. Next stop Nerima !]


	5. Pretty Tomboy

**Ranma 1/2: A Ward of a Goddess**

 **Disclaimer:** The following is a fan written parody. Ranma ½ belongs to Rumiko Takahashi, Viz Media, Studio Deen, Shogakukan and Madman Entertainment. Oh My Goddess! belongs to Kōsuke Fujishima, Kodansha, Dark Horse Comics and Madman Entertainment. Other IP used have their respective owners as well, I do not own characters and events and they are used without permission. Support the official release, and don't sue me.

[Cold Opening:

It was a rare, quiet evening at the Wayne Manor, the residence of Bruce Wayne and his freshly adopted daughter. The master of the mansion was sitting by the table, looking at latest stock results on his laptop. He was bored beyond belief. While Bruce was known better known as carefree playboy he really was a man of action and he didn't enjoy reading financial reports. At least his adopted Japanese daughter was enjoying the peace. Ever since the death of her parents Ranma was staying in Gotham, along with her new legal guardian.

Bruce looked through the window, to find a familiar sight in the sky.

"Ranma ! It's the Batsignal, lightened by commissioner Tendo !" He was saved from the risk of boredom induced death "Quickly grab some water and turn into Robin, the Boy Wonder !"

The petite Japanese girl sighed and put the copy of "The Master and Margarita" she was reading on the table. She turned her small, dark haired head towards camera.

"Previously on Batman: The Brave and ½..." said her sweet voice.

Ranma Saotome has finished his training with Amazons. He joined the tribe by following the rite of adoption and was now an Amazon Warrior, by their law being now female with a reverse _Jusenkyo_ curse. Set with mission of helping his new tribe in adopting to modern times the cursed martial artist left to Japan along with his father. The boy grew up during that month, leaving his misogynist view of the world behind him. Now he was about to arrive in the Nerima ward of Tokyo...]

 **Chapter 4**

 **Pretty Tomboy**

The special ward of Tokyo Metropolis, Nerima was a one strange place. In New York if you'd throw a stone, which you should never do, as it's very rude, you would hit a superhero, in Hogwarts you would hit a wizard. But in that Japanese city within city three separate martial artist would jump, each trying to catch the stone, only to start fighting amongst themselves. The thrower would be then challenged to a match of Martial Arts Stone Skipping.

But the unnaturally high population of martial artists was not the only special thing about Nerima. There were also the butterflies. The insects living here were not of a normal kind, they weren't interested in rising hurricanes, nor even causing temporal paradoxes. They dealt with raw Chaos. Just as the mortal worshipers of Ruinous Powers aspired to daemonhood, denizens of the warp aspired to become one of the butterflies. They could feel the change of patterns, so they begun their slow, but steady migration towards the slowly emerging center of the incoming storm, the Tendo Family Compound.

Chaos and Order are ideals far different from Evil and Good, and should not be compared to them. Causing a change can bring something better, but introducing structure has the same potential. On the cosmic scale it always turns that an Equilibrium is maintained. Right now the balance called for the Chaos to cause something good to happen. The butterflies, chosen agents of Chaos found a sixteen years old Japanese girl, who was walking home from school. She encountered some of the insects. The girl never saw any of them before and she was curious about strange, beautiful butterflies with an eight pointed stars on their wings. With her long, raven black hair flowing behind her she rushed after them, taking a slightly different road than usual.

She lost the track of butterflies as she came close to a vacant lot. Someone set up a camp there. It was a simple one, with tent, campfire and several kettles, hanging over the fire. The girl also saw that a young boy, perhaps of her age was doing _kata_. Since she was a martial artist herself she stopped to take a look. The boy was dressed in red, Chinese style sleeveless shirt and black pants and had long black hair gathered in a pony tail. The practice he was going through looked really complex. The girl recognized parts of the routine as very similar to her own style. Then the boy suddenly stopped, waved towards the girl and in two quick jumps was right next to her.

"Hi, may I help you somehow ?" The boy asked her. She was a bit surprised, he wasn't attacking her, he was... polite. The raven haired girl had a very low opinion on boys as a species. For last three weeks she was attacked by a _hentai_ horde every morning before school. There was also Kuno, but he usually was just stupid, delusional and producing random poetry at her.

"Uhmm..." She looked into the ground, starting to trace an eight with her foot "I saw your _kata_ and I was wondering... what style is that ?"

"That's Anything Goes Martial Arts." The boy said, looking at the girl before him, she was shorter than him, dressed in school uniform. She had long, deep black hair with blue highlights. The girl looked like a tomboy, a bit flat, but with long, nice legs. A cute one, that would turn stunning in her twenties, even if she was just attractive now "Sorry I kinda should introduce myself. I'm Saotome Ranma, I'm kinda a heir of the style."

"I'm Tendo Akane, also a heir, but to the School of Indiscriminate Grappling." The girl finally stopped contemplating dirt "Nice to meet you."

"So, you're a martial artist too ?" A month ago Ranma would laugh at an idea of girl doing martial arts, but since then he happened to turn into a girl himself who was an amazon warrior "We should compare our styles sometimes."

Polite, nice and a martial artist. She never suspected to meet someone like that. He actually was quite handsome, and Akane, the girl who hated all the boys surprised herself with what she said next "I'd love too. Maybe we could meet tomorrow ?"

"I can't." Ranma apologized, bowing slightly "Pops got something big prepared for tomorrow. We also usually don't stay for long in one place too... How about Sunday ? I think I can convince Pops to stay for an extra day after whatever he's got in stock for tomorrow."

"It's Sunday then." Akane smiled. The girls smile was one of those that were accompanied by angels, rainbows, and melting glaciers. It was making her shine. Then she left quickly. She was looking forward to Sunday.

Ranma looked for a second after the girl, she was a tomboy, but she was rather cute, had nice legs and she could really smile. He also was looking forward to Sunday. One of the purple, eight point starred butterflies landed on his shoulder.

 **XXX**

The Tendo Family Compound consisted of the family house, the _dojo_ and surrounding grounds. Like any established Japanese home it even included a _koi_ fish pond. The house was large, with bedrooms for all of three sisters and a room the master of the house used. There were also several guest rooms, used in the past by students of the School of Indiscriminate Grappling.

In a living room a middle aged man was holding a post card. The master of the house was dressed in brown _gi_ and had a large mustache, there was also some kind of sadness in him. The man was muscular and in good condition, albeit it was obvious he hadn't practiced for several years. His name was Soun Tendo.

"Ranma ? Coming here ?" He said, wailing and crying in happiness over the postcard from China "Oh how I've waited for this day !"

He had to inform his three daughters. He went to the kitchen first.

"Kasumi-chan !" he called.

"Yes, daddy ?" a nineteen years old woman turned. She was beautiful girl, in a classical Japanese way. She had medium long, brown hair. She was wearing an apron over casual home clothes and aside from earrings she didn't wear any jewelry. The earrings were rather large, silver, had some nondescript geometrical shape and were adorned with lavender crystals. She was very attached to them, the jewelry was a gift from her mother.

"Nabiki-chan !" he called again.

In her room a seventeen years old girl turned on her bed. She was busy reading her manga. A very attractive, classy girl with shortly bowl cut brown hair was the self proclaimed Ice Queen who loved one thing above any other, money. She was usually busy running some kind of extortion scheme, her newest activity was selling photos of her own sister to members of the _hentai_ horde. If she was a boy Nabiki would probably already have her first tattoo. As a girl she was one, maybe two years away from getting one.

"Akane-chan !" He called for a third time "Where is that girl ?"

The raven haired girl had just finished her jogging. She quickly changed into yellow _gi_. Then she prepared two bricks and chopped through them with her considered herself one of strongest martial artists in Nerima and she was a heir to the School of Indiscriminate Grappling. This was her everyday routine.

"That was nice" she turned to see her sister.

"There you go again, sis." Said Nabiki, walking through the courtyard "No wonder the boys all think you're so weird."

"So why should I care ?" She turned to face her older sibling "Besides I don't see you being chased by half of the school every morning, so I could gladly get less attention."

"Oh." Nabiki turned around as she put her hands behind her head "Then I guess this wouldn't interest you."

They went back to house to talk with their father.

A minute later three female voices shouted in unison "Fiance !" Three sisters were sitting together by the table in living room. Their father was siting on the other side.

"Yes, the son of a very good friend of mine." He said to his daughters. The oldest, Kasumi looked unaffected, the middle one Nabiki looked interested. Akane, well she was going red with anger "If one of you three girls were to marry him..." their father continued "...and carry on this training center then the Tendo family legacy would be secured."

"Wait a minute !" Akane's short temper flared "Don't we have some say in who we marry ?"

"Please Akane-chan drink some tea to calm yourself." Kasumi calmly added, idly playing with her hair "She's right, daddy. We've never even met him. "

"That's easily fixed" Their father smiled "Genma is bringing his son today. His name is Saotome Ranma."

Akane spurted her tea all over him. The boy from yesterday ? The one she was supposed to meet tomorrow ?

"Somethings wrong, Akane ?" Kasumi asked as she handed a towel to her father.

"No nothing." Akane certainly looked strange at the moment.

Akane quickly checked herself. She couldn't meet Ranma dressed in a _gi_. So she surprised her sisters.

"I'm going to change, be right back." The youngest of Tendo sisters disappeared up stairs.

"Was that my sister..." Nabiki picked up her jaw "... getting changed because a boy is coming ?" Then she checked herself, deciding that a tank top and shorts won't do. Even if she didn't like an idea of an arranged marriage, she was not going to get beaten by Akane "Be right back."

Kasumi waited till her younger siblings were gone, before giggling and snapping her fingers, as a little bit of magic changed her clothes to a nice green, pleated medium skirt and a matching top.

"I don't think you should be doing it like that, Kasumi-chan." Her father said, disapproving the causality his eldest daughter expressed when using magic "Mother never liked your spell casting."

"My mother would rather say something along: "Way to go, I could teach you much more."" Kasumi was not going to put with her father today, arranged marriage was bad already "Kimiko-sama on the other hand didn't like my magic."

He was about to say something when he found his other daughters getting down. Nabiki was wearing a _kimino_ , while Akane decided on blue skirt and a matching top, along with pearl necklace. They returned to the table.

"Nice skirt Kasumi" Nabiki commented on her sister, the speed at which she changed always amazed her, it was like if she had some magical wardrobe "How come I never saw it before ?"

"Because you borrow my stuff and never return it." The eldest sister smiled "So I have to hide my best dresses from you." She turned towards her father "What kind of guy is this Ranma ?"

"No idea." He felt a bit stupid "I've never met him."

Nabiki banged her head on the table. "I'm being set up into arranged marriage and my father never met met my fiance. This is supposed to be 1987, not Tokugawa period."

Soun Tendo could only hope Ranma and Genma would get here quickly. A heavy rain started outside.

 **XXX**

Usually streets of Nerima were pretty busy. But the sudden rain cleared them quickly. So there were very few people able to witness a strange sight, even by the standards of their neighborhood. A panda was carrying a squirming sixteen years old beauty.

"Let me go !" Ranma-chan tried to reach for her pockets to take out one of her sticks "I should have known that's another fiancee !"

Peorth slowly floated behind them. That was so in Genma's style, for all his talking about big surprise he did the usual stuff. Got another fiancee for her ward. The kid was already engaged to at least half of all available female heirs of various martial arts or _dojo_ through the whole Japan. It was a good thing that he was turning into girl for only a month and his father was a prisoner through most of that time. Genma had no occasion to get Ranma-chan engaged to any guy, yet.

Then the panda walked to a gate, Genma was on place. Ranma-chan looked at the sign. It read "Tendo School of Indiscriminate Grappling". Wasn't that the name of the style the chick from yesterday was training ? The neo girl decided that she didn't want to meet her like that.

"Set me down, I promise I won't try to escape." The girl pleaded "I have a thermos, with hot water. We won't make a good impression as a girl and her pet panda."

They moved towards the entrance to the house, when they were secure from rain Ranma-chan checked her pockets, she pulled a chakram and whip before finding thermos. The teenager was getting better at the Hidden Weapon Style, but just didn't always pull what intended. A second later both were back in their normal form and they knocked on the door.

"It must be Ranma !" Shouted Nabiki as both she and her father rushed to the door. Akane and Kasumi slowly walked behind them.

All three girls looked at their guests. Genma was quickly dismissed, he was old and bald, though his muscular frame didn't look bad. The more important sight was Ranma. Kasumi found him too young. Nabiki found him quite handsome. Akane was relieved, it really was the boy from yesterday.

What happened next surprised most of the people. They didn't expect that the two teenagers had a chance to meet each other before.

"Hello Ranma-kun. I see you're arriving a bit before the schedule. We were supposed to meet tomorrow." The girl that hated boys smiled.

"Hi Tendo-san. " The boy smiled as well "I kinda couldn't wait."

Soun fainted.

"Mr Saotome, Nabiki-chan, could you take daddy to living room ? Akane-chan since you happen to know Ranma-kun already, take care of our three guests, I'll prepare tea." Kasumi was in her element, ordering her family around.

"Yes, Kasumi-san." All agreed immediately, when the eldest Tendo sister asked of something there was no way to refuse. Nabiki looked behind her herself, something that Kasumi said was trying to get her attention.

Few minutes later there were back by the table, Tendo family on one side, Saotome's on the second. There was a moment of awkward silence, broken by the sound of boiling water.

"Oh it looks like tea is ready !" Kasumi voice made everyone jump "Could you help me with a second tray Akane-chan ?"

Both girls returned from kitchen with trays. They had hot water, sugar, tea and a pitcher of cold water. Cold water and cursed martial artist mix together very well, so the younger girl had to slip. She managed not to drop anything, except the pitcher. Cold water sailed through the air... Peorth pushed the water to her left with a flick of her wrist, so it all would splash on Genma. A second later in place of Ranma's father there was a panda sitting.

"Whoa !" Nabiki exclaimed, followed by Akane's "What ?" Soun cast a quick glance at his eldest daughter, who shrugged her arms in a sort of "Not my fault." gesture.

"Well I think some explanations are in order." Ranma sighed, it was not like he would be able to keep it secret "Month ago me and my pet panda here, we was hitch hiking down... a long and lonesome road... in China..."

Kasumi filled yet another cup of tea. She then walked to the back of room, using a moment when all attention was on Ranma. Peorth was sitting, enjoying the show before her when someone placed a cup of tea in her hands.

"Here you are, you must be all cold after walking in the rain." Kasumi smiled, tilting her head a little. Her smile had the same qualities as the one Akane used.

"You can see me ?" Peorth was more annoyed than surprised, first the old ghoul in China detected her, now it was a young woman. She was getting sloppy with her veil.

"Witchsight. I have a bit of magic on my own." Kasumi explained "What brings a goddess under my roof ?"

"I'm Ranma's guardian spirit." The goddess answered. She looked again on the young girl, she had strange earrings, they looked almost like... She touched one of her owns, quickly dismissing the idea, there was no reason for nineteen year old girl to wear power limiters after all "Peorth, first class, second category, unlimited, nice to meet you."

"Nice too meet you too. If you need anything just ask." Kasumi smiled again and returned to hear the tale about Ranma, Genma and the curse of _Jusenkyo_.

 **XXX**

… and this is whole story." finished the girl before them, before using hot water to turn back into guy.

The awkward silence fell again.

Soun was first to break it.

"So when doused with cold water you turn into girl..." He used the pitcher on Ranma, turning him into female again "...but hot water turns you back into boy." He pulled a kettle trying to splash the petite girl.

"Hot water !" She said jumping away from being scalded "Not boiling !"

"No sweat." Soun said patting Ranma-chan on a shoulder "Your problem isn't so terrible after all. My daughter Kasumi, nineteen, Nabiki, seventeen and Akane, sixteen. Pick the one you want, she's your fiancee."

Before either of three girls were able to do anything Ranma-chan spoke with her sweet voice. "I'm already all full on fiancees. I don't really need another one."

"Another one ?" Soun head head slowly turned, like in a horror movie.

"Oh, so you don't know Mr. Tendo ?" Ranma-chan quickly dodged his father who tried to close her mouth with his paws "Panda got me engaged to half of female martial arts heirs in Japan. I'm lucky he didn't engage me as a girl yet. How many times did we escape from Daikoku family Pops ? Five this year only."

"Can you explain me this, Genma ?" Soun was getting angry, he changed his friend's form with boiling water.

"It didn't have to be this hot, Soun..." Genma begun...

"I wouldn't listen to a word from him. I know what this ruse is all about, he's going to get me married to one of girls and get the _dojo_ as a dowry. Then he'll sell it from under our ass, he already pulled this once with Ukyo and her father's _yatai_." Ranma-chan continued to dig a grave for his father.

Darkness covered the room. Soun Tendo allowed his battle aura to flare, then he changed into gigantic floating demon head, with red eyes, fangs and forked tongue. It was a sight to behold and tremble.

"Genma, we will need to talk about that in private." Said the demonic presence, with booming voice before grabbing Ranma's father by leg with it's tongue.

Kasumi went to open a door to another room, her hair suddenly covering her entire face changing her into a very convincing demonic force.

"Ranma, son, I beg you, help me !" Shouted Genma as he was being dragged by the demonic head. Martial artist was trying to dig into the wooden floor with his fingernails. "No !" he shouted again as he was dragged into pith blackness of another room.

Maniacal laughter of the demonic head was the last thing heard when Sadako cosplay closed the doors behind them. Kasumi gathered her hair back to normal way and returned to her act of a sweet, innocent girl. She then went to the kitchen and brought some hot water for Ranma-chan.

The three sisters could once again see a transformation happening. They expected something more. But it happened at instant, there were no magical lights, no temporal moments of half boy, half girl. One moment a girl, the second a boy.

"So, Ranma, How is it ?" Nabiki asked.

"How is what ?" Ranma knew this one was coming.

"Well being able to change from boy to girl, of course." The middle sister did pry a bit.

"I've been like this just for a month." Ranma-kun put his hands behind his head "I'm more comfortable as a guy, because that's who I'm. But I've spent most of last month as a girl and while it was terrible at the beginning I kinda adapted."

"So what is different, to me it looks like you have the best of both worlds. You're a hunk right now and as a girl you look just gorgeous." Nabiki kept pressing " Do you like guys when you turn into girl ?"

"Nabiki !" Kasumi interrupted "That's not a proper thing to discuss."

"Ranma-kun, would you like to see our _dojo_?" Akane came to the rescue.

"Sure." He answered.

 **XXX**

The Tendo _Dojo_ was empty. It looked very spartan. Wooden walls, wooden floor. A small shrine on the wall. Ranma could almost feel the atmosphere. It was... sad. A place of learning should be full of students, not full of dust... actually there was no dust here, someone spent a lot of time to keep it in great condition.

"It looks so... empty." He turned to Akane, looking at the large room.

"Daddy stopped giving lessons after mommy passed..." Akane started.

"I'm sorry Tendo-san, I didn't know..." Ranma quickly bowed to her. Shy, polite, nice, the boy was certainly different from the usual stock Akane had to deal with.

"No need to apologize, you couldn't know..." The girl went quiet, once again starting to trace eight like symbol with her sock. Something in this boy made her act differently than usual.

"I know we were supposed to do it tomorrow, but how about a little sparring ?" Ranma offered, trying to break the rising silence.

"Sure !" Akane brightened "I'll just change and be right back !" She rushed out of the _dojo_.

Ranma sat in a lotus position taking a second to place himself in meditation state. He tried to expand his senses, the way Kuh Lohn taught him. Slowly he felt the room around him, every corner. He heard the commotion coming from the house and the sound of rain outside. Then he opened his eyes as he sensed Akane coming back.

Now she was dressed in yellow _gi_. She was definitely an tomboy, but for Ranma it did not matter. If he really wanted to have a look at a gorgeous doll all he needed was a mirror and a bucket of cold water.

"Then let's have a little match, okay ?" The girl said as she dropped into battle stance "But I'll go all out, I'd really hate to loose to a boy !"

Ranma looked at her for a second. He was not assuming any stance. The girl had the wrong attitude.

"This is a sparring, Tendo-san, it's not about finding who is better." One month of training under ancient Chinese master was enough. Some of the wisdom rubbed onto him "We are here to test our skills, see were we lack and how we can improve. At the end we both will be, kinda winners."

Akane dropped from her stance. That was not what she expected, but... Ranma was right.

"Then let's have a little match, okay ?" Once again she dropped into her stance "Just for fun."

This time Ranma adopted a neutral stance as well. Akane attacked with a strong punch but the boy easily jumped to the air, she tried a quick kick, but he performed a split, still in midair. She attacked with array of punches but he kept dodging every single of them.

Akane couldn't understand why none of her attacks connected, it was like the boy was reading her every move. She went once again, this time she was sure it's for real. Her powerful punch hit the wall splitting the wood, as Ranma effortlessly jumped over her. Then he swept at her legs dropping the poor girl right to the floor.

He looked for a second at her. She had power and skill, but she had no form. Akane lacked speed, but most of all the girl lacked focus.

"You're pretty good" Akane said, gathering herself from the floor. That was going to leave a bruise, but right now she was happy, finally someone was taking her seriously. "How come you've defeated me so easily ?"

"Tendo-san, how do you train ?" He asked.

"Well I go for a jogging, then I break bricks..." she started to explain, when Ranma started to laugh.

"Hey, don't laugh, what's wrong with breaking bricks ?" She started to get angry.

"Bricks..." He said trying to fight laughter "...don't hit back !"

"What ?" She was getting much more angry at the boy, how did he dare mock her Art.

"She does jogging and brick splitting and she asks why she is losing." Ranma was still laughing, failing to notice that the foot in mouth disease attacked again.

The girl short temper flared as she pulled her mallet to hit the laughing boy. But instead of his head all she hit was a pair of crossed ebony sticks the boy pulled from nowhere.

"School of Indiscriminate Grappling Hammerspace ? Hidden Weapon Style ?" Both of them shouted surprised. Before Ranma could even hope to explain anything the girl flared again.

"How do you dare to use my own style against me !" She attacked with her mallet again. This time Ranma had to dodge the attack. Akane wielded her weapon like it was made out of paper and he was sure if she was to hit him not even his, toughened by _Bakusai Tenketsu_ body could take it.

Akane continued her assault, Ranma jumped away from her with a backflip and threw one of his chakram at her. The girl jumped to the right and her opponent immediately followed to attack the blind side of the young martial artist. She changed her grip and performed a backhand strike with her mallet. Ranma slide close to the ground as the hammer went just millimeters above his head, then he disarmed her with a powerful kick. He handspringed back on his legs as Akane attacked him barehanded. Once again he dodged her punch and axe kick, then he followed with quick three strike combo tripping the girl again. He moved on her and pressed his b _aston_ to her throat.

She was there, on the floor, this time completely defeated and at his mercy. She was never defeated by a boy before and in her opinion Ranma was about to use her. She noted however that he stood up and gave her a hand. Akane grabbed it as he helped her to get up.

"That was much better Tendo-san, you almost got me with that vicious backhand." He smiled at her, breathing heavily "You're much better with that weapon than going barehanded."

Akane blinked in surprise, he defeated her, she was at his mercy and Ranma was... praising her skill ? "Th-Thank you ?"

"That was quite a show from you two." They heard someone, both teenagers looked to the side to find that Soun Tendo was standing at the entrance to the _dojo_.

"Uhm, Mr. Tendo, I'm sorry for hitting your..." Ranma quickly apologized, hoping he won't find himself on the other side of the demon head attack.

"No need to apologize, you did just what you should." Soun Tendo walked to his daughter "Akane-chan, I'm sorry. I should have trained you better, but you learned so fast. Once you got to the point where I would have to go really hard on you I... well I couldn't bring myself to it..."

"Daddy ?" Akane tried to gather her father before he could change into a human fountain "It's okay, you did your best."

"No. I failed as a teacher." Soun was close to breaking into tears "I failed you and I failed this _dojo_ , but I lost my heart and will to continue teaching." He turned towards the opponent that his daughter had just fought with "Ranma-kun, after talking with your father I've decided to cancel this stupid arranged marriage idea. I already invited Genma to stay here, along with you. I want you to become a teacher at this _dojo_ and I want Akane to be your first student. What do you say, son ?"

"If Tendo-san agrees." Ranma answered.

Akane thought about all this. Ranma was, she could admit it much better than her. She could learn from him, but he was a boy. Then again... He was so much different than other boys, nice, polite, strong and he took her martial arts seriously. Akane looked at him again, he was also handsome.

"Only if you drop with Tendo-san." She said "Just call me Akane."

"Okay, Akane." Ranma bowed to her "Do you accept me as your teacher ? I have to warn you I won't go easy on you."

"That's exactly what I want, _Sensei_." She smiled again with an ice melting quality.

Ranma blinked, she was certainly cute, but the tomboy girl suddenly became nothing else than beautiful.

Ranma and Akane left, she to get a bath, he to wait for his turn. Soun looked for a while at the _dojo_. One wall was almost split in two, on the second a chakram was half buried in the wood. Several large holes poked through the floor, right where Akane smashed her mallet.

"Kasumi-chan !" He called.

"Yes, daddy ?" she quickly appeared, then she looked at the destruction before her "Oh my. Did Akane do that ?"

"She's really a very sweet girl." Soun said "She's just a violent maniac. Could you do something about this mess ?"

"I thought you don't like me doing magic ?" She looked at him.

"This is an emergency situation, we can't afford any repairs, not when we just got a pair of freeloaders. Well one freeloader, Ranma agreed to train Akane so he will earn the room and food at least." Soun explained.

"All right, but don't let anyone in till I finish." Kasumi said as she walked in, closing the doors behind. She walked to the middle of room and knelled on the floor. She checked the _dojo_ to make sure the goddess that came with Ranma was not around. She didn't want to give her any more suspicions. Then she began.

" _Oh venue of learning I call thy spirit._ " She chanted as power played around her " _Come to my aid, hear my plead and restore this place to all of it's glory_." Around her all of damage was repaired by black tendrils and after a few seconds the _dojo_ looked as perfect as if no fight happened here at all.

She walked out. Soun checked inside, to find no damage at all. He looked at his daughter who was a bit pale.

"I'll go to take a bath and I'll hit the bed, I used to much power for one day." She said, walking slowly and carefully.

 **XXX**

Genma awoke in the morning. He didn't remember much from yesterday. Soun dragged him... what kind of technique he used exactly ? That was not one of the tricks they learned from Him. Then his friend interrogated him. Last thing he remembered was that he used Crouch of the Wild Tiger to stop the horror. Now he was in Tendo house guest room. He looked to his left to find a second, empty futon. That one Ranma must have slept in. He got up to find his son. It wasn't typical for Ranma to wake before him, he usually had to dump a bucket of water to get his son oot of bed for the morning sparring.

"Kasumi-chan." He asked as he got to kitchen "Have you seen Ranma ?"

"Yes, Uncle Genma." Kasumi turned around "He went out with Akane-chan to begin her training."

"He did what ?" Genma got angry "He can't be slacking from his training like that. I'll wait for him."

Some distance away a pair of martial artist were jogging together. A young, raven haired girl and a boy of her age with dark hair and pony tail.

"Uhhm... I'm sorry about yesterday." Akane begun "I overreacted a bit after you used the Hammerspace technique."

"It was my fault as well." Ranma said, this time being very careful not to fall prey to Saotome famous problem. It was already bad when he put his foot into mouth yesterday "I shouldn't laugh or mock you Art. I don't know anything about Hammerspace however, I'm practicing Hidden Weapon Style, the guy that taught me is much better, he has entire armory on him, I can can carry only several items."

"So you use another technique that is similar to mine ?" Akane felt a bit bad, she had jumped to conclusions again and allowed her temper to take the better of her "It works by displacing the item to the darkness?"

"Yes. It's pretty interesting that both his school and yours use the same technique." Ranma remarked. Both of them were in good condition, being able to talk casually despite running fast for half an hour already "It's something Mr. Tendo taught you ?"

"Actually, no. I don't even know if daddy can do it. I learned..." Akane bit her tongue a bit to late but she felt she had to continue what she began "...it from Kasumi. She said it is mother's technique..."

She stopped for a second to think. Kasumi told her, but it did not make sense. Funny, she never thought about that before. Her mother never was a martial artist, she was a kindergarten teacher, how could she teach a martial arts technique to Kasumi ?

"Okay, Akane. I see we've stopped, So time to start working on your speed and coordination." Ranma changed the tone of his voice into what he wanted to call _Sensei_ time. It was supposed to be a very serious one, but all it did was making him sound funny "We'll now play tag. You have to hit me. But too make it harder..." He went to a nearby fountain "...I'm going to give you a smaller target." The girl before Akane said.

Many of denizens of Nerima were already accustomed to a sight of raven haired girl jogging every morning. This time it looked like she brought a friend with her. A gorgeous, petite dark haired girl was working out with Akane.

"Come on slowpoke, you can do better than this." The smaller girl laughed, bouncing from the wall like some kind of hyper active ball, before grabbing a lamppost, and spinning around it dodging an attack from Akane. Then she jumped on the wall. Tendo went right after her, trying to run, but stumbling and loosing balance quickly. Before falling off she felt someones hands behind her.

"Don't think what you're doing, Akane." She heard the sweet, female voice of her _sensei_ "You body knows how to keep balance, let it be the one in reign. Do it naturally, don't try to force it." Akane was walking, trying to keep her balance "Nice, don't look at your legs, look before you, come on, you can be faster than that." She heard Ranma behind her and continued, sure that the other girl would protect her if she stumbled. Akane walked to the end of the wall, where both girls jumped off.

"Good job, Akane." Ranma remarked, indeed Akane was a fast learner, there was a lot of potential in her "Will need to work on you balance as well."

"Yes, _Sensei_ , but now..." she poked the other girl in her nose "...you're the one catching me !"

"Why you sneaky little..." Ranma laughed as Akane started to escape.

"Indiscriminate Grappling, remember ?" The raven haired girl laughed as well, this was it, the training she always wanted to have. Akane enjoyed every second of it.

The two giggling girls continued playing their game of subsonic parkour tag. By the time they reached home they were exhausted.

"Ranma, I wanted to ask you something." She breathed heavily "How can you be so... causal about that curse ? I would be going all around crazy if I was the one to turn into a guy."

"Casual ? I don't think about it as something casual. It's something that might be with me for the rest of my life. There is supposedly no cure." The girl looked into the distance, partly like talking with Akane, partly as if with herself "What choice do I have. Start running after every phantom of a cure ? It's adapt or go crazy. I'd rather go on, find whatever best I can and see where this takes me. Whether I like it or not the curse is, kinda, a part of my destiny."

Akane looked at the girl next to her. Sometimes he was just a dumb jock, but sometimes he was like at this moment, like something had changed just a moment before and was not always to be seen. Perhaps from time to time something deeper than his facade was getting through. Like a mind behind a mask.

"This also puzzles me. You have two bodies, right, don't you need to train everything twice ?" She asked.

"No. Whatever training I do carries from one body to another. It also carries too wounds, memories and everything." Ranma-chan was glad for that one, He really didn't want to go through _Bakusai Tenketsu_ training for a second time. "It doesn't make much sense, but being an ehrr... gender changing freak because of some magical Chinese curse is kinda strange in the first place."

The girls neared to the house. Ranma-chan again turned to his student. "We'll need to get a bath first... I have a favor to ask. Could you and your sisters meet with me in the _dojo_ in about an hour ?"

"Sure, I'll go ask them." The girl answered, though what she wanted now was getting a good massage. Every muscle was crying in anguish after the workout. She could bet those small slender hands of Ranma-chan would feel great running on her... did she really just think what she thought ?

As soon as they went inside Genma closed in to his, at the moment daughter.

"Son, why are you a girl ?" He asked, rather loudly.

"Well, if I recall correctly there was this panda that took me to China..." Ranma snickered.

"No, why are you a girl right now ?" Genma was loosing his patience "I do not approve of you, running around as a girl, slacking from your training and I don't recall allowing you to teach Anything Goes..."

"Is there a problem with Ranma-kun teaching Akane-chan ?" Soun arrived right behind Genma "I don't see you having problem with sleeping in my home or eating the fantastic cooking of my eldest daughter, so as long as you wish to remain a guest your son will be teaching in my _dojo_ , or would you like to talk about it ?"

Genma quickly removed himself from area. He didn't want to risk a second encounter with the demon head Soun. Ranma went to take bath first, then he disappeared to a guest room he shared with his father, still as a girl. Akane decided to talk with her oldest sister.

"Kasumi could I ask you something ?" She began as she entered the kitchen. "Ranma asked to meet with him in _dojo_ in half an hour, could you come with Nabiki ?"

 **XXX**

The three sisters were waiting in the _dojo_. Akane summoned them here as per request of her new _sensei_. Neither of them knew anything and concerning what already has happened they were expecting anything. Ranma could just walk right in, along with four friends, declaring an intention of building Crystal Kingdom and they wouldn't even blink. The doors to the _dojo_ opened and a girl walked in. They needed few seconds to register that the girl was actually Ranma. Up to this moment every time they saw his cursed form she was dressed in several sizes to big male clothes, she also carried herself in completely unfeminine way. But now she was dressed in teal silk blouse and pants, that looked like fitted for the the tiny female form and she walked completely different, in a lot more girly fashion. There was also change in hair style, the ponytail was gone, in it's place the girl carried a pigtail and... whatever those two things in front of her face were.

"Nice attire Ranma." Kasumi said.

"You think so ? Doesn't it make me look fat ?" The girl said, tilting her head with a certainly unmanly smile, causing the three girls to face fault. Ranma had to wait a second before he was able to continue. It looked like his idea was working. The mending of soul that Peorth gave him at _Jusenkyo_ left him in perfect balance with feminine _yin_ energies an a certain level of attuning. He discovered that he could tap into that energy when he wanted to go all girl "Nihao, honorable sisters of Tendo clan" It was a familiar, sweet voice of Ranma's female form, but there were some completely different tones in it than usual "I'm Lou Xion of _Joketsuzoku_ and I would like to tell you about what happened during last month, after my accident at the cursed springs..."

Half an hour later four girls were sitting in Tendo _dojo_ , three of them were completely enchanted by the story Ranma just told. The fourth one finished her tale. "... this is all. Any questions ?"

"Several, actually." Nabiki was the first to speak "But the first one is, what in the name of sanity have you done with your hair ?"

"This ?" Lou Xion touched her hair "Those are loopies. I'm wearing loopies now. Hair loopies are cool." She had nothing more to add about her hair.

"So, Lotion is some kind of stupid name." Nabiki continued.

"I'm very proud of this name. It was given to me by elder Cologne in a ceremony where my handmaidens were Shampoo and Perfume" The girl kept smiling "Most of amazon names just sound funny when pronounced in Japanese."

"So you are Ranma when boy and Lotion when girl ?" Akane tried this time.

"It doesn't work this way. Lou Xion is just my name amongst Amazon Tribe just as Ranma is the name my parents gave to me." The neo girl was remaining calm and patient.

"Okay, I get most of this, by why have you called us?" Kasumi asked, clearly amused by the situation "Besides getting to look at our shocked faces when you walked in and we didn't recognize you."

"Well, Tendo-san..." the adopted Chinese girl started.

"Drop with this. I'm Kasumi, this is Nabiki, and over there sits Akane." Kasumi cheerfully smiled again "We almost became family yesterday after all."

"Kasumi-san, I kinda wanted your help." He went straight to the point "I want to use my cursed form as a secret identity to better carry my mission. Outside of Pops and you I want to be Ranma as male and use Lou Xion when in female form." He pulled an envelope and gave it to Nabiki. The middle sister opened it, then she whistled in amazement. "This should help me and is one of reasons why I want to keep my curse as a secret."

"Now this is interesting" She looked at the documents closer. Those weren't fakes, they were genuine "According to this Lotion is nineteen years old and is a Chinese citizen. This even has her passport and visa for indefinite stay in Japan. The only thing you lack here is diplomatic immunity I guess."

"I think it's a good idea to keep your curse as a secret." Kasumi added "We don't want any Men in Black, or occult societies to come here." She had her own motives in keeping herself out of suspicions.

"The problem I'm having is that to do it, well I kinda need to able to pull my role in convincing matter. As amazon warrior I'm supposed to be more masculine than average girl, but I need to learn how to act feminine." A mere month ago he was a man amongst man, he would rather die than do anything girly. But since that time a lot has changed "That's why I need your help."

"You were certainly convincing a moment ago." Nabiki said. Ranma was definitely an interesting boy "But the first things we need to set up is how your secret identity works. You look just like a female clone of yourself, no one who will ever see both of your forms will be able to dismiss it as coincidence. It would be much better if you had different hair color when hit by water, just imagine how much a difference it would make if you changed into a redhead. As Lotion you are an adopted Japanese girl that joined a Chinese tribal society, right ?" Ranma nodded to her "I think you should keep the story more believable by simply always admitting that your two forms are cousins. This will explain why you look similar. There is no risk of anyone seeing Ranma and Lotion at one time, so they won't notice that they are identical twins that easily."

"Yeah, this would help a lot." This time it was Akane to continue "The next problem you will have is that as Lotion you are supposed to an amazon warrior. This will mean both forms are martial artist. You will need to make your styles distinct enough not to make anyone suspicious."

"You're right, Akane." It was good idea to ask the girls, they were good at finding holes in his plan "This one I have idea how to deal with. Ranma is a practitioner of Anything Goes Martial Arts, a style that is not a great fan of using weapons. If I keep not using them and dismiss as something below real man, crutch for a true warrior and so on when I'm a boy, I could make my cursed form a primary weapon user. Anyone who will know Ranma will quickly dismiss similarities when he'll see my girl form fighting with b _aston_ at every occasion. I could also easily explain why both forms will sometimes use similar techniques, cousin Lou Xion will teach Ranma amazon techniques in return for being taught Anything Goes."

"Okay that settles most problems." Kasumi turned, It was now time to test if Ranma is just talking the talk and see if he can walk the walk "I think it's time to start your education at femininity. Step one. You, dear sister I have just gained, can't run around in Chinese garb, without a bra and in man boxers. We are taking you on shopping trip. You will need some clothes and lingerie."

"What ?" Ranma manhood alarms went on. All hands were on deck.

"We are the Tendo" Begun Kasumi.

"Resistance is futile." Continued Nabiki,

"You will be assimilated." Finished Akane.

Thus did the three sisters of Tendo clan hit the shops, dragging along with them their newest addition, Lou Xion of _Joketsuzoku_.

"Well, come out" Akane giggled "Don't tell me an Amazon Warrior is afraid of showing of how she looks in a dress !"

After a few more seconds Lou Xion finally left fitting room. The green sundress was fitting perfectly to her incredible figure, and the color went ideally with her, very red at the moment, complexion.

"Turn around a bit." Kasumi smiled, so far the first hour of doing shopping was great fun, Seeing as Ranma was getting a new hue of red every time he had to show how she looked in a latest rag was amusing "This one is perfect. Add it to the rest."

"We should, kinda stop, I don't think I'll be able to wear all of these even if I'll go in different one every day." Lou Xion pretended to have enough. The truth was that something inside her cursed form kept telling him that she was doing the right thing.

"How's the list Nabiki ?" Kasumi turned to her sister.

"We are full on undies, and bra. Rest is full, now all we miss are some shoes." Nabiki checked the list "Who's gonna pay for all that ?"

"You are, dear sister." Kasumi said, giggling a bit "Though I expect that Lotion will return all costs in convenient monthly installments."

A shoe shop was next, there something broke inside Lou Xion. She was standing looking at a pair, black with white tip and cherry red ribbon on forward. Something in them was speaking, not to him, it was definitely her that heard the call from those shoes.

"I'm trying these." She grabbed a correct pair to try on. Then she checked herself in mirror, the shoes were ideal. "I'm buying those, from my own wallet."

"Well done, Lotion." Kasumi got closer to her "Lesson one passed."

They were back home, eating dinner, with Ranma back in his non-cursed form. The sight of him eating was one to be seen in order to be believed. It almost looked like he inhaled the food. Kasumi remarked that she should start preparing more food. At least his father was more calm with eating, Genma used to be no less a big eater than his son, but he found that heavy work for a month did wonders to his condition and was in no rush to start putting weight back.

After the dinner was over three girls and Ranma gathered in _dojo_ again.

"You still haven't answered my question. Do you like boys when you're a girl ?" Nabiki attacked again.

"Ughh. I guess you won't leave it till I say it ?" Nabiki was going hard on him "Okay, this is like that. Whether as a girl or a boy I'm still me. Yes some things do change, I guess not only my looks are affected by curse, but some parts of my thinking too. But even as a girl I still find boys repulsive and girls attractive."

"This makes you weird." Nabiki said again "You're pervert this way."

"Hey !" Akane temper flared again "Don't call him that ! This is normal for him to like girls as her." Akane took in deep breath to deliver her point "As boy he likes girls, so as girl he should not like boys. If he liked boys as a girl that would mean he likes boys as a boy as well, not girls as a girl, which he likes as a boy. So by liking girls as a a girl he should be straight as he and gay as she to not be gay as he. He is straight because she is gay !" Akane finished proud of her explanation. Then she noted that her two sisters and Ranma had completely blank expression as their brains went into emergency shutdown, displaying Guru Meditation error. They slowly jump started again, trying to wrap around what Akane just said. All three of them pulled their character sheets and dice, gracefully taking 1d4/1d10 sanity points loss.

"You might be right, Akane" Nabiki remarked. She never, ever again wanted to hear anything even remotely close to her sister's logic "We might never understand you, Ranma-kun, because we are not in your situation and I hope we will never be. Yet I think I'll say it for all three of us. We will support you." Kasumi and Akane nodded.

Later on that day Ranma sat to write his first report. He was sure the last thing amazons expected was an essay about comforts of modern underwear. He also thought about last two days. It turned way better than he expected, not only did he managed to avoid getting engaged to one of Tendo sisters, not that there would be anything wrong with that, all three were intelligent and cute. He also got a student and a home.

Later, with the report completed he could relax for a second. He should start teaching meditation to Akane and work on her temper. Enrolling into school would be a rather good idea, he couldn't be a modern amazon by remaining book dumb.

Peorth wondered how could his visit turn out if it wasn't for the time spent by her ward with amazons. For her own personal amusement she summoned her Yggdrasil terminal to check possible outcomes. Ranma would come here as an insensitive, childish, arrogant jerk and he would end engaged. Kasumi and Nabiki would push it on youngest of them. It would end in epic catastrophe, Akane would catch him naked in bath, before knowing about curse. She had a good laugh for a moment. There were more pressing matters however, first one was Kasumi. just who was this girl ?

 **XXX**

There he was, finally in Japan. Now he would only need to find Ranma, and take his revenge. Only then he would be able to continue with his life. The Eternal Lost Boy, Ryoga Hibiki begun to run into the sunset... or north, as it is better known to less directionally challenged people. He would walk five hundred miles if needed, but all he made was about fifty steps before he was splashed with water by a passing car.

"Bweee !" A black piglet cried to heavens which roughly translated as "Ranma Saotome, this is all your fault !"

[Author Notes:

So we are in Nerima. There is no engagement this time for Ranma. A word of explanation:

Kasumi:

For this fanfic I wanted to give a larger role to the eldest Tendo sister than her usual role of a housekeeper living prop . This is why she is someone altogether different here.

Akane and a mallet:

The mallet is mostly a fanon thing, Akane actually uses her fists and kicks as often as a nearest heavy blunt object to hit Ranma and it doesn't appear that all that often. But I like it and it's well known as something often attributed to Akane, so I've decided to make it her signature weapon.

Next stop, Ranma goes to school.]


	6. Big Trouble at Furinkan High

**Ranma 1/2: A Ward of a Goddess**

 **Disclaimer:** The following is a fan written parody. Ranma ½ belongs to Rumiko Takahashi, Viz Media, Studio Deen, Shogakukan and Madman Entertainment. Oh My Goddess! belongs to Kōsuke Fujishima, Kodansha, Dark Horse Comics and Madman Entertainment. Other IP used have their respective owners as well, I do not own characters and events and they are used without permission. Support the official release, and don't sue me.

[Cold Opening:

Two people were standing at the bow of the most luxurious transatlantic ship ever build. A Japanese girl, with a long, raven black hair and her companion, a boy with a pigtail.

"Hold on to the railing. Keep your eyes closed, don't peek" She heard the voice of her beloved behind "Step up on the railing. Hold on, hold on. Keep your eyes closed. Do you trust me ?"

Then she felt that Ranma opened her arms.

"All right." She heard him again "Open your eyes."

"I'm flying, Ranma !" Akane gasped in wonder "Uhmm, Ranma, that thing in front of the ship..."

"It looks like an iceberg to me..." He looked at the massive ice mountain "...and it's coming right on us !"

"Perhaps you could do something about it ?" The girl asked.

"Sure, give me lift, tomboy." He said, as Akane started to spin him like a disc before throwing the boy towards the looming iceberg " _Bakusai Tenketsu_!" could be heard in the cold air.

Akane turned her face towards the camera, with one of her _kawaii_ smiles.

"Previously on Titanic ½..." said her sweet voice.

Ranma arrived at the Tendo Family Compound. After almost ending engaged to one of the three sisters he found himself with a job. Ranma was now a _sensei_ to the youngest of Tendo sisters, a girl named Akane. He also enlisted the help of all three of them in his mission as Lotion. Now the young martial artist was going to enroll to the school.]

 **Chapter 5**

 **Big Trouble at Furinkan High**

There is no other day in the week that is as hated as Monday. The day marks the beginning of each week. From here on begins a five day long toil, until you finally can hit Friday night and enjoy your Saturday and Sunday... until a next Monday hits.

On this Monday however Ranma felt eager to begin a new chapter in his life. School was something he'd been on and off for a while now. Sometimes he could go to one for a week, only to be enrolled into another two months later, for whole nine days. This left his education, well... comparing it to Swiss cheese would be bad idea, unless the diary product was to represent his periods of not getting any education and the holes were what little he did get. Much was going to change however. To fully support his mission he would need to finish his education, Ranma could no long remain a book dumb jock.

He got up early. Another wonderful thing that he learned in Amazon Village. He used to be a sound sleeper, but now his biological clock was regulated to getting up along with dawn. Meditation techniques allowed Ranma to go with just six hours of sleep each day. So he ate a breakfast with Kasumi, as an early bird as him and was now helping her with cleaning the dishes. As he got splashed with water somewhere along the way he was again in his girl form. As two girls were busy with work something slowly walked into the kitchen. It looked like a zombie and from a large distance along with bad lightning it could be identified as Nabiki. The near dead girl slowly walked to the table, where Kasumi gently pushed a mug into her hand. She started to drink the pith black contents. Slowly her pale skin changed color, the bags under her eyes disappeared. Then she smiled, returning to life, like some sort of a cartoon character.

"Caffeine... I love you more, then I did two weeks before." Nabiki voice left no doubts that she would be willing to marry that mug of coffee "Good to see you're already up, Ranma. We need to get to the school early to get you enrolled before first lesson." The girl left the kitchen to get herself ready.

"What was in that coffee ?" Ranma-chan turned to ask Kasumi "I've never seen one working miracles before."

"Oh nothing special." Kasumi giggled "Coffee, sugar, spice, lot of sisterly love and a pinch of magic. It's mother's special recipe, for those really hard mornings, it just so happens that for Nabiki every morning is tough." Kasumi pulled a chakram from behind "You left one of these in the _dojo_ , I thought you could use it back."

Ranma-chan excused herself and went to prepare for the school. She was supposed to get there at least an hour before normal classes started, so she could take care of paperwork. She packed a _bento_ , prepared by Kasumi and other necessary things. The girl also displaced her sticks, whip, chakrams and thermos into the darkness. Few minutes later she was ready, waiting for the middle Tendo sister.

Standing there she actually remembered something important and went to fetch some hot water. Getting to school as a girl was not a good idea.

Few moments later the boy, Nabiki and Peorth left the Tendo Family Compound to go to the Furinkan High School.

Ranma jumped on a fence. He walked on it as casually as if it was a perfectly flat road.

"Wow, you've got some balance." Nabiki gasped at his casual show of martial arts prowess.

"Yeah, but I practice every time I've got an opportunity." The boy talked form his higher vantage "I should try ice skating I guess, never tried that one and it should be a good practice."

He jumped down from the fence, now walking next to the classy short haired girl. After few minutes Ranma suddenly stopped.

"Oh, fifty Yens !" He shouted, finding a coin laying, when a handful of cold water went just before his head, splashing on the pavement "Huh ? I almost got splashed ?" Ranma looked to find an old lady who was holding a bucket and splashing the pavement before her house with a wooden ladle.

"We should take a little detour." Nabiki remarked "I totally forgot about the old lady."

They changed the road. Peorth smiled, the coin trick helped this time. She checked the new road. One car, closing to a rain puddle, one guy with a water hose and a bucket of cold water, left at the edge of a roof, easy. The curse stood no chance in confrontation with her.

 **XXX**

Furinkan High School was a perfect place for education. As long as you were a citizen of Nerima and didn't mind several oddities. The building was over one hundred and fifty years old and through it's history gathered it's own collection of wandering ghosts, half forgotten shops with strange merchandise and a whole assemblage of love inducing artifacts. Directly beneath the school was a large subterranean cave, changed into a underground complex, designed as a cold war shelter. Once it was one of the best schools in Japan and it graduates included diplomats and inventors, but in recent years it gathered a bad reputation, mostly due to the actions of it's most eccentric Principal, Kuno Godai. Luckily he disappeared several years ago, along with his yacht. The school could be restored to it's former glory, but it would need a man with a vision. Vice Principal Kamoyo Okamada was that person and he had a vision indeed.

It took him nearly two years to get rid of, or pacify, the old principal's flunkies, but it was a battle he won. It would take even longer to restore the good name of the school. But he had ambition and Vice Principal wanted to bring a change to the Furinkan High. His mission was to create a learning environment perfect for martial artists. Okamada fully understood the need for a special PE program dedicated to students pursuing the Art. Training trips and unexpected occurrences like being kidnapped by a rival clan and hold as a hostage called for a special self-study and homework system, so he created one. The school under his command was prepared for everything, students challenging each other, space pirates attending the classes and even ancient Chinese curses. Like the one that a new student that expressed an interest in enrolling had. His name was Ranma Saotome and he was... a correct terminology would probably be aqua-transsexual, or maybe gender-fluid ? No, the first option sounded much better, more professional. Once again he looked at the questionnaire form filled by the boy,who, depending on weather, occasionally happened to be a girl.

"Well Mr. Saotome, this does not look very good. Your education looks to be missing a lot, three months in one school, than missing two months, after that two weeks in another. Your grades from what little education you have completed are not what I would call stellar. Normally I'd be against enrolling you." Vice Principal Okamada was however a man who in his youth was a martial artist himself "But Furinkan High is a school that exists just for young people like you, martial artists that wish to complete their education. You, young man will need to take remedial classes as well as regular one's. " Okamada smiled "There is also information on you having an ancient Chinese curse that makes you... aqua-transsexual would be a correct word. While it must make your life difficult, our school is prepared to accommodate for everything, including boys that change into girls. For now you will receive an excuse to use teachers locker room and shower before and after PE, until we can figure a more permanent solutions, but it would be best to try to avoid making your curse a public knowledge. Welcome to Furinkan High School, Saotome Ranma."

He got assigned to class 1-F, so he would be in one group with Akane. It was close to 9 am so Ranma eagerly walked to begin his first lesson in the new school. He noted that every window was occupied by students. There was some kind of commotion right at the entrance. Ranma found the middle Tendo sister standing by one of the windows, next to a strange, cyan haired girl.

"Hi, Nabiki-senpai, what's happening down there ?" He asked.

"The _hentai_ horde is preparing to greet Akane." She turned towards him "Ryomi-chan, this is Saotome Ranma, Ranma-kun meet Masaki Ryomi, she's a friend from my class."

"Now, Nabiki-chan, so that's the boy you talked about." The strange girl had cyan, shoulder long hair and was lean and well built. She was quite attractive and had an air of a predator that made her ooze sensuality "You didn't mention he is quite a hunk. I wouldn't mind getting engaged to him." The way she said it made Ranma very uncomfortable, so he quickly changed subject.

"What's this about the _hentai_ horde ?" He asked, looking at the thirty, or so boys, standing in a line, while one of them, dressed in a _kendo_ uniform, was reading the attendance rooster.

"Another idea of Kuno- _baka_. That's the one in _kendogi_. He declared that only a boy that defeats Akane will be allowed to date her." Ryomi explained, getting closer to him. He felt really strange, as if the girl was undressing him with her eyes.

"How long has this been going ?" Ranma asked, backing several steps behind Nabiki, as if seeking protection.

"About three weeks, Ranma-kun." Nabiki said, casting a glance towards her classmate, who was obviously trying some kind of a strange courting ritual with Ranma "Akane is taking them far to easily, if she'd broke a leg or two they'd stop pestering her. Sorry Ranma, it's about to begin and I need to gather bets."

Nabiki left him alone with the cyan haired girl. Ranma contemplated jumping through the window, but a shout from below stopped him in his tracks.

"She's coming !" Shouted one of the boys and indeed he saw Akane running towards the gates.

" _Hentai_ horde ! Attack pattern Delta !" Shouted the leader as the group went for a kill. One of them placed a boombox that started to play a battle theme.

Akane passed the the school gate, she gripped her school bag as a sort of improvised weapon and began a dance. The youngest of Tendo sisters was like a dervish, she used the bag to keep the throng of opponents out. Always on the move the young martial artist let only a few opponents into her guard at a single time, putting them them down with a strong punch or kick, then quickly moving to a new position. Not unlike a whirlwind she mowed her opposition with a great skill and precision. It was hard to even call that a battle, it was a massacre. In less than fifteen seconds her entire opposition was put out of action. Akane, sweating a bit brought her breath under control. She noted that there was still one opponent standing.

"Fair Tendo Akane." The young man before her said, holding a rose in one hand and a _bokken_ in another "As a new day dawns over the this venue of learning, let it mark the birth of our love. Allow me to defeat you, so I will take you on the date of your dreams. For the only men worthy of the Fierce Tigress of House Tendo is Tatewaki Kuno. Junior. Group E. Undefeated new star of the High School _kendo_ world. But my peers call me... The Blue Thunder of Furinkan High !" There was an actual thunder that accompanied him. Peorth looked around trying to find the source of it, but with no success Kuno threw the flower he was holding to Akane "And now, Tendo Akane, might you fight me."

"Oh, upperclassman." Akane face was looking like she was bored beyond imagination "Good morning and go die !" She brought her mallet on him, sending Kuno towards the horizon. Few seconds later Nabiki ran out from the school with a notebook in one hand and a measuring tape in second, going after the flying object.

Akane saw Ranma standing in a window, so she took her bag and ran towards the school. She didn't aim for the door, instead she ran a few steps on the wall, then she leaped to the tree, using one of its branches as a springboard to jump through the open window on the second floor. She put to much strength into it and failed to stop, so she hit the wall at a full ramming speed.

"Ouch." the long haired girl somehow pulled herself from an Akane shaped impression "How was it ?" She turned to Ranma.

"One thing we won't need to work on is crowd control. Actually I could take some pointers from you in that regard. Nice jump, but you should be able to do that standing and you'll need to work on the landing. You're putting to much power into everything, where you should go for more control." Ranma summarized.

"Yes, _Sensei_." Akane said. What followed was like an explosion, as several heads appeared everywhere, shouting one through other.

"What ! _Sensei_ ! Akane has a _sensei_ now ! What a hunk ! I thought you despised men ! I would like to learn under him, if you know what I mean !"

"Let's go to the class, okay, _sensei_?" Akane dragged him behind, ignoring the students and several murderous looks other girls were giving her.

"Ehh." Ryomi sighed "Just my luck, such a hunk and his already taken. I bet dad would like him"

 **XXX**

Ranma walked into his class, along with Akane and the rest of students. There was a lot of commotion inside. The source of was of course the news of the day. The class went silent as soon as the teacher came in. A mass of notes began to accumulate on Akane's desk.

"We have a new student with us." The teacher announced "If you could say a few words about yourself." He pointed to Ranma.

"Good morning. I'm Saotome Ranma. I'm a martial artist and I recently finished a month long training regime in China." He bowed slightly before his new class. Class 1, group F looked pretty normally, there were no one as strange as the cyan haired girl, well maybe except the guy that was sitting way in the back. He looked just like Nabiki in the morning, all zombie mode and was playing with a voodoo doll "I hope to become a good friend with all of you."

Ranma went to his seat and classes have started. About five minutes later someone spoke through the speaker system.

"Attention. We have official results on "How far will Kuno be pounded", today he scored one thousand and three hundred feet. Thank you."

The normal day at Furinkan High begun in earnest.

In class 2-E, where the teacher was getting a bit late, Tatewaki Kuno who has just returned from the nurse office went straight to Nabiki.

"Need something Kuno ?" Nabiki tried to look at his face, but all she saw were bandages "I don't have any new photos of Akane."

"I require nothing, but information vital to me." Kuno started, in his delusion failing to note that Nabiki and Ryomi just rolled their eyes "What is that rumor of foul origin, that the beauteous Akane has a _sensei_ under the name of Ranma Saotome ?"

"Nothing but truth Kuno." Nabiki stretched on her chair "Ranma has just returned from mainland China, where he trained for a month under ancient master. He stays with his father at our _dojo_..."

"Alas, so such is the truth of his depravity !" Kuno looked into the distance "His plan is to bewitch the Fierce Tigress of House Tendo and spirit her to China, so he may sacrifice the fair maiden to his eldritch gods !" Kuno removed his school uniform with a single motion to reveal _kendogi_ beneath and somehow procured a rose he put in his mouth "It falls to me, The Blue Thunder of Furinkan High, to save my beloved from this cadaverous ruffian !" With this Kuno grabbed his _bokken_ and ran out of the class.

"Maybe you should tell Akane-chan to stop pounding him so hard ?" Ryomi remarked "His delusions are getting worse every day."

The doors to class 1-F were suddenly opened when upperclassman Kuno barged in.

"Saotome Ranma, I demand an instant satisfaction !" He shouted.

"So this is how you swing now, Kuno-senpai ? So he only puts an act of liking girls ? Looks like this time Akane hit him too hard." Few students quickly commented, while someone begun to whistle the Blue Oyster Bar theme.

"I challenge you, cadaverous ruffian !" Kuno ignored the comments. He ignored many things, common sense for example "I will not allow you to bewitch the Unspoiled Flower of Japanese Womanhood !"

"I'm a cavad... carte... what ?" Ranma had a blank expression, as he didn't understand a single word from what Kuno said "Could someone provide a translation ?"

"I believe you have been called a pale bandit and have been accused of putting a spell on Akane Tendo" The teacher sighed, one of the days they would need to call for a medical evaluation concerning Kuno's condition.

"Oh. I get it now." Ranma said "Permission to answer the challenge ?"

"Well, each student can accept one challenge a week, even during classes." The teacher sighed again, why did he ever take a job at this strange school ? Right... alimony... "Permission granted."

Kuno and Ranma left the class and most students tried to go after them.

"Ahem !" The teacher called "Rest of the class is required to return to their places."

"Permission to act as Ranma-kun second !" Akane raised her hand.

"Permission granted." The teacher sighed again "The rest of class, please open your books on page ninety seven..."

The curse of _Jusenkyo_ was a lazy one. After all cold water was everywhere and getting someone, or something wet was very easy. But the goddess changed the game. To keep up with Peorth the curse would need to abandon it's simple ruse and start to get creative. It had to follow some rules, the curse had to be coincidental, not vulgar. Luckily this was Nerima and the curse didn't need to look far. So two workers were found. They were clumsy and tended to work with things containing water. From now on they would encounter a string of bad luck...

High above the Furinkan High a pilot of a transport plane was getting sleepy, his hand fell to his right...

"Jin !" the second pilot awakened him " You've opened the hatch, the boss will kill us if we loose his transport of cactus !"

"Sorry, Kazuya." He quickly pushed the hatch control back to closed.

Down below them Ranma was running through the hall, with Kuno right behind him. He was looking for an open window.

"Let's get outside !" He shouted to his opponent once he found one "Follow me !"

"Fear not !" Kuno shouted jumping through the window, remembering far to late that they were on a third floor.

"Ranma !" Akane shouted "Don't ! There is a pool outside !"

"Gack !" Ranma just found the presence of a large body of cold water on the end of his trajectory " Why did it have to be water?"

A sudden gust of wind pushed him back,where he was able to grab to a convenient ivy and slow his descend enough to both avoid landing in the pool and a splash when Kuno hit the water.

"Thank you, Peorth-sama !" he send a quick prayer to his guardian spirit as he started to run towards the soccer field, where he intended to confront his opponent.

"Since when do we have an ivy growing on the wall ?" Akane wondered for a second, before starting to run towards stairs.

Pool accident was averted. The goddess checked the sprinkler system, preventing a chance of mishap activation. She closed windows right in front of all students with bucket duty. Peorth smiled to herself, happy that she stopped all imminent danger that cold water presented to Ranma.

Kuno managed to get out of the pool, then he noted that the object of his concentrated hate was vanishing behind a corner, obviously afraid facing the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High ! So he started to ran after him. Ranma went right around the corner of the building when a cactus squashed into the ground right in front of him, sending a splash of sticky juice on the poor boy and triggering his curse.

"What !" Goddess Peorth was just standing there, her hands pointing towards what just happened, with mouth open and expression of utter disbelief "How... How was I supposed to expect that !"

Kuno made it around the corner and stopped in his tracks. The sight before his eyes was the most wonderful he ever saw. Next to a squashed cactus there was... a girl, dressed in Chinese clothes, so lithe and beautiful. Her silk red tunic, all wet, was sticking to her full, ideally shaped breasts, while her black pants were clinging around her slender legs. The pearl droplets of succulent sap gathered on her small head and tiny, alluring nose, shining against her skin. She was as beautiful as Akane. No ! More beautiful ! Tatewaki Kuno felt as his heart rate increased tenfold.

"My cactus born dryad ! Did you see where that boy in the ponytail went ?" He asked her "That coward ! Running away from a fight ! No doubt he feared my prowess ! He is no man !"

"I'm not gonna hang and take this !" Ranma-chan produced her _baston_ falling into amazonian battle stance "I can take you anytime ! Come on !"

"Heh ! Amusing." Kuno flexed a bit, grabbing his wooden weapon "Well. Should you win..." He performed a strong swing towards her "... I will allow you to go out with me !"

Lou Xion caught the swing on her own weapon, taking all the power into her own motion as she executed one graceful, well calculated move flowing like a dancer next to boys _bokken_ to deliver her shapely foot right to his head in a powerful roundhouse kick. Kuno was spun around, falling like a tree.

"And who's asking to go out with you ?" She said , beginning to wipe herself from the sticky sap.

"Showoff." Akane, who managed to come just in time and watch the fight commented. She bent over Kuno, who slowly opened his eyes, to find his Fierce Tigress right over him "Guess what, upperclassman. Ranma is even better than her." She walked next to her _sensei_ "Come on, Lotion. We need to find some hot water."

Kuno gathered himself looking after the two walking beauties. Who on earth was the cactus born dryad ?

 **XXX**

"We're home !" Shouted Ranma and Akane as they entered the Tendo house. Freshly back from school and all sweaty from an another round of parkour tag they practiced on they way back home.

"Great, dinner will be ready in two hours !" They heard Kasumi shout back to them from the kitchen.

"Ranma, we need to do the homework, then we can continue with training." The raven haired girl turned face her _sensei_ "I'd like to see that move you pulled on Kuno."

"I have a different training in mind for today, Akane." Ranma said, when he saw his father again.

"Ranma ! We need to talk, like father to son !" Once again Genma verbally attacked him, this time there was no Soun around to send him back groveling.

"Wait up, student." Ranma sighed "This won't take long." Both of them retreated to the guest room they shared, closing the doors behind them.

Akane waited a moment, then she went upstairs as well, moved closer to the door, to find that Nabiki was already there, holding some some kind of contraption. It consisted of a glass and a stethoscope joined together by what looked to be a porcelain glue, the whole gadget looked like someone tried to build a high end spy tool out of what he found in a cupboard.

"Hey, Akane-chan" She whispered to her sister "Check my eavesdropping tool. You can buy all the weird stuff on flea market this days. I actually got this one from some American guy."

Two young spy girls began they investigation, sharing their gadget together.

"... not. Your training must always come first. What have I always taught you, Ranma ? The person that should always come first is you." Genma berated his son.

"Things have changed, Pops. I'm no longer your monument to the Art. That's why I've decided to be an Amazon. To be a part of something more important than just me." Ranma dropped his country boy accent somewhere along the way "As for the school, I fully plan to finish my education, perhaps even aim for a college."

"A College ? What use has a martial artist for higher education ? I didn't need any fancy..." Genma was getting angry.

"And look how well you finished. Without home, always on the road, without a yen to his soul. That's what I should be ? A petty thief and a sorry excuse of a conman, selling my own son into countless engagements just to fill our bellies with rice ?" Ranma stopped to be a gullible boy some time ago and was able to see his father for who he really was. What little respect he still had for his old man was evaporating really quickly "I'm not blind, Pops. We've been to enough _dojo_ on our travels, some were empty hovels, some were prosperous. You know what was the difference ? Successful ones had diplomas on their walls."

"You know nothing, Ranma Saotome !" Genma was not used to his son talking back. That he made sense was even worse "That's why we've come here. To join the two schools. You should be marrying one of Soun's daughters, so we could get the _dojo_ as a dowry and start teaching Anything Goes ! Instead you're wasting your time and talent by teaching martial arts to that weak girl..."

"Take that back." Ranma didn't raise his voice, but it now had an edge to it "I'm not buying your crap anymore. If you want I can grab a bucket of water and show you how weak a girl can really be."

"Watch out, son !" Genma voice got even more angry "I taught you everything you know, but that doesn't mean I know everything I've taught... ehrr..."

"That should be I haven't taught you everything I know, Pops." Ranma snickered "This not a mistake I plan to make with Akane. She has potential and talent, she just was going without a _sensei_ far too long. But with some training she can be at least as good as me."

"You know what, Ranma ?" Genma laughed "I don't even know why I'm wasting my time arguing with you. You are my son and until you're adult you'll do as I tell you. We leave Tendo's today. You'll forget all about school, giving lessons and this playing an amazon, once you'll return to good old training regime."

This left Ranma speechless. He could only stand and look on Genma's victorious smirk. His father was right at this he was not an adult and... The boy felt something on his back, like a reassuring touch. He felt something giving him a lift of spirit. Peorth was standing right behind her ward, with her hands placed on his shoulders. This was why she pushed Ranma to become an amazon. To give him a reason in his life, a sense of purpose going beyond just becoming martial artist or seeking to be a better person. Something like that would allow to take his life in to his own hands, with her guidance of course.

"No." He said a simple one word. Ranma was getting ready to wipe that smirk of Genma's face "I'm a proud amazon warrior and guess what, she is adult. If you plan to take me out of here you'll have to beat me up and drag by force. A word of advice Pops. If you really plan on doing that, be very careful. Lou Xion will give you the Kiss of Death, for her mission comes first."

"Son ?" That surprised Genma, it was not what he planned "To think that I wanted to commend you for getting Amazon secrets, but it looks like you've gone native. I'm going, Ranma. You can come with, or you can stay. I don't need to tell you with choice is a good one !"

There was a moment of silence and then Akane and Nabiki heard someone packing frantically. They quickly moved to the next room, not to be caught eavesdropping. They looked through a slit to see that it was Genma, with his backpack, going downstairs.

Ranma followed him, but without a backpack. Genma walked out of the house, passing next to Soun, who was just back from the town council meeting.

"Going somewhere, Genma ?" He asked surprised.

"Yes, far away. I'm leaving my foolish son in your hands." Genma then turned towards the house where Ranma, along with all the three Tendo sisters, was standing "You'll be the one to regret this ! I'll yet see you groveling at my feet ! I'll have the last laugh !" Then he turned, leaving through the main gate, as it closed behind him.

"Well, Akane, after Pops pulled all this drama." He turned towards the girl "We still need to do the homework, right ?" With that Ranma walked back into the house.

 **XXX**

Ranma was looking at his student. They were together in the Tendo _Dojo_ , alone. The girl was sitting in a lotus position, undergoing her first training in the difficult art of meditation. Now, somewhat peaceful she was looking just breathtaking. Akane could really change easily, when peaceful, or smiling she was beautiful, but when she got angry she became, what would be opposite of a cute ? Uncute, perhaps ? He hoped meditation would help with her temper and all that penned up anger, Ranma really preferred the peaceful, smiling girl over her angry alter ego. He could look at the girl for hours, but it was more than just that, she had the potential to become his equal in martial arts, his partner...

"Ranma, I can't get it. The stupid butterfly keeps flying." Akane said as she opened her eyes "Are you sure this has anything to do with martial arts ?"

"As my mentor said, when I was in your position: I would be rather surprised if you got it on your first try." Ranma smiled "Meditation is very important to the spiritual development. Martial arts are not only about power and technique. Without discipline strength does not matter. If you can't focus, you're just running around, flailing with your arms. The root of your problem is this, Akane, you're putting to much power in to everything you do. But the strength of your punch is useless if you can't connect with it."

"Ranma. Is this how you can remain so calm after what happened between you and your dad ?" She asked him "I mean, he almost disowned you."

"Yes. With meditation I can attain balance. This allows me to put my problems or fears away for a moment, then return to them, with clear mind and see solutions where I didn't see any before." Ranma stretched a bit "This is what I want to teach you as well."

"Okay, I understand." She stretched as well "But what this exercise about butterflies has to do with balance ?"

"I'll pull from the well of my mentor's sayings, every journey has to begin with a first step. In meditation what you need to learn first is patience." Ranma returned to his own meditation.

This time it was Akane who was looking at him. Ranma proved time and time again to be opposite of what she used to think about boys. He was so strong. A girl could stand next to him, knowing that he would protect her. Somewhere inside she understood that was not what he would like to find in a girl. She wanted something more as well, to train hard enough to be his partner. Akane looked at the garden outside the open doors of the _dojo_ , there were the butterflies there, lately quite a lot of eight point starred ones were flying in the grounds of the compound. That reminded her, she should do her training, looking once again on her handsome _sensei_ , she returned to the meditation.

A pair of purple butterflies flew into the _dojo_ , one sitting on Ranma's shoulder, second on the shoulder of Akane. The insects, that could sense the emerging patterns...

 **XXX**

During the breakfast next morning Akane talked about her problems with the _baka_ brigade. Kasumi came with an idea.

"Perhaps you should ask Lotion for help, Akane." The eldest of sisters said, while she gathered the dishes "I've been reading this fascinating book about Amazon customs you showed me Ranma and I found something you could use. How about declaring Akane your shieldsister ?"

"What's a shieldsister ?" Akane turned, interested in anything that could stop the _hentai_ horde "And if you're gonna tell me that's when two amazon warriors like each other very, very much..."

"Don't worry. That would be a swordsister." Ranma explained, customs of the tribe he was adopted to were rather peculiar, even for a matriarchal warrior society "Shieldsister is an outsider woman, that an amazon considers her equal. The warrior is then guarding her and fighting by her side as if she was a sister of _Joketsuzoku_. This way your problem with the _hentai_ horde would become mine as well. Even considering that challenging a girl to a fight is the proper behavior in my tribe, the idea of a horde of idiots attacking a girl is going far beyond the custom."

"So, Lotion, do you find me worthy of being called your shieldsister ?" Akane asked, showing one of her best smiles.

"Well..." Ranma quickly considered available options, there were very few that didn't end with him being hammered like a nail by her mallet "...you have a potential to be as good martial artist as I'm." The boy grabbed a glass of water from the table, using it contents to trigger his curse "Tendo Akane, as a warrior of _Joketsuzoku_ I name youmy shieldsister. Your fights are now my fights. At the day of the final battle, I will expect to find you by my side."

"It is a great honor." Akane talked in serious manner "I accept to be a shieldsister of the noble Lotion."

This was how Ranma was now in his female form and she was going to school to express her great displeasure on how the boys were treating Lou Xion's shieldsister.

The _hentai_ horde was waiting on the schoolyard, getting ready for the pitched battle, that was happening every morning for last three weeks. Today they felt that the victory was in their grasp, Kuno had a new, foolproof plan.

"She's coming !" The forward scout shouted "Ehrr... Guys... Akane is not alone, there is some hot Chinese chick with a weird hairstyle with her."

Akane and her friend stopped right before the entrance, just few steps away from the perplexed boys. Everybody was looking at the petite, dark haired goddess, that came with their schoolmate. She was dressed in her teal silk blouse and pants, with girl slip on shoes and loopies. The morning sun was right behind her lithe form.

"Hello there." The gorgeous girl spoke. Her voice was like a honey, dripping with a promise. Sweet, with just enough spice "I could say boys, but you are very far away from being called that, so I'll just stay by what I see, maggots."

"Whoa !" could be heard from every window at Furinkan High. It looked like the girl meant business.

"I'm Lou Xion, of the Chinese Amazon Tribe. I've been informed how you treat my shieldsister, Akane." The dark haired beauty introduced herself "You should be very ashamed of yourself. Does any of you really think that this a way to a girls heart ? Akane is a wonderful, strong woman, not a prize to be won ! Do you even begin to think how each one of you looks in the eyes of girls from your school ? There is a vast difference between men and boys, but right now, all I see is thirty pigs !"

"Hey missy ! Who do you think you are !" One of the guys, dressed in a full hockey goalkeeper armor, sans ice skates, shouted at her. Faster than a blink of an eye she produced a whip, first smacking his hockey stick from his hand, then her whip wrapped along his legs as she tripped him, and with a single pull dragged him next to herself. That was going against most laws of physics, as the boy, along with all that armor had to weight at least three times more than her. Then she pulled his hockey mask, crushing it in her small hand, like if it was papier-mâché, not fiberglass. Kentaro, the unlucky member of the hockey club, lost consciousness.

She was standing there, over one of the boys, holding a whip in her hand. A girl that was gorgeous and had a whip. Most boys (and several girls) suddenly found themselves in their wildest dreams, where they were tied to a bed, and the petite Chinese warrior was standing right next to them, in various states of undress, with her whip. It was getting _ecchi_ pretty fast from that point on. The girls voice brought them out of their daydreams.

"Now that I have your attention I want to see your champion, pick one that is the best amongst you and I'll fight him." Lou Xion smiled, with an evil grin "If I'm impressed I'll might even allow him to leave alive."

"If you so insist, cactus born dryad I will be the one to fight you." Kuno stepped forward "You will have the honor of facing The..."

"Yes, I remember you." Lou Xion interrupted before he could begin to spurt random poetry again "You're the True Blunder."

The salvo of laughter that went through the schoolyard was loud enough that even Kuno registered it, as he suddenly got all red.

"I already defeated you once, but if you're the best they've got..." She jumped into the schoolyard, standing just before Kuno.

The _kendo_ practitoner went into attack with an overhead slash, intending to smash the girl, but she deftly moved to side, as his _bokken_ hit the wall, destroying a large fragment of it. He quickly slashed again, this time she performed a split jump over his weapon, that struck a tree behind her, cutting it in half.

"This is all ?" The girl somersaulted over him, landing right behind the boy " _Bakusai Tenketsu !_ " The ground exploded, with Lou Xion and Kuno caught right in epicenter, but the shrapnel had no effect on a body hardened by the amazon training, they were however very effective on the _kendo_ practitioner. She sent him flying from the smokescreen created by her technique with a powerful punch, as he hit the wall, with countless bruises and small cuts from the rain of stony splinters. A chakram flew striking the wall just millimeters from his head, burying itself halfway into concrete. The smoke slowly faded away, revealing Lou Xion, completely unscathed, as she walked to Kuno, aiming her finger right onto his skull " _Bakusai Tenketsu !_ " Tatewaki actually pissed himself. She stopped her finger just a fraction of an inch from his head. Of course the Breaking Point attack did not affect people, but no one here knew it, so it looked like she stopped just short of popping his head like a watermelon.

The Chinese dressed girl turned her gaze towards the rest of the _hentai_ horde. The guys all had weak knees, seeing that their commander just got literary pummeled into oblivion in like three seconds by that petite dark haired angel, who pulled stuff they only saw in an _anime_ before.

"This ends here and now." She said to them "If anyone wishes to continue this folly tomorrow..." She pulled her finger up "... _Bakusai Tenketsu_!" Another explosion followed and when the smoke faded there was no sign of Lou Xion.

 **XXX**

The class 2-E, as well as rest of school, was concentrated on a single topic. The fight that happened before the school. They discussed what happened during the fight and how easily Kuno, who used to be one of best fighters in the school, got defeated. But the thing that was discussed the most was that petite, gorgeous fighter that, according to rumors, almost killed the True Blunder. There were already several stories going around, from plausible ones, like her being a Chinese warrior and cousin of Ranma, through more impossible of her being an extraterrestrial princess seeking an old enemy that was hiding in Furinkan High, to absolutely outrageous like she actually was a form that Ranma could change into due to an ancient Chinese curse. Kuno was not interested in stories, he wanted truth and to get that he had to turn to his most trusted informer.

"Sure, I know her." Nabiki looked at the heavily bandaged form of Kuno "The girl with a pigtail and the loopies."

"Nabiki Tendo ! Can this be true ?" Kuno picked up a calligraphy set and started to frantically write something. If the pigtailed cactus born dryad thought that she could defeat him and just walk away... he would show her just how much wrong she was. After a minute he handed a letter to Nabiki. The title read: To the cactus born dryad.

"Here" Nabiki found Ranma and Akane during launch break, they were sitting under a tree. Ranma did, whatever he did with the food, it had to be some form of Martial Arts, probably Anything Goes Feeding, or something like that, the only other explanation would be some kind of a mutation. Akane opened her own _bento_. There was a sound, akin to a thousand tormented souls released and a cloud of yellow-green smoke raised over it. The raven haired girl tried a piece and an interesting shade of green appered on her face. Nevertheless she continued to eat. Ever since Kasumi made her taste her her own creations Akane stopped to force them on their family. Since Kasumi insisted that she ate everything that she cooked the raven haired girl was developing a partial resistance. By now no conventional poison would even affect her.

"This is to me ?" Ranma asked, looking at the title of the letter Nabiki gave him.

"To your other side, I think." Nabiki confirmed "Kuno wanted to get this delivered to Lotion."

"On Sunday, in the tenth hour meet me in the second field of Furinkan High School." Ranma read the letter aloud.

"Sounds like a duel." Akane said from over her _bento_.

"Little Kuno just hates to loose." Nabiki said, sitting next to her sister "He can be somewhat vengeful."

"I just hope this Lotion trick will put the _hentai_ horde of your back." Ranma put his hand behind his head "I mean, since people heard I'm her cousin I've had like fifty guys asking if I can set them up for a date with her. Actually some girls even approached with the same idea, and your friend with that odd hair color even wanted to set up a date both with me and Lotion... at the same time. She swings both ways ?"

"Ryomi ?" Nabiki giggled "I think she swings every way possible. She just scares everyone with how strongly she advances on them. If she's still a virgin it's not from the lack of trying."

"Nabiki !" Akane chocked on her food "That's not something to discuss while eating, and with a boy !"

"I can make it all girls here." Nabiki picked a bottle of water in the same time as Ranma started to move away from her. Luckily the ring bell announced the end of a launch break.

After few hours the school was finally over. Both of the young martial artists walked through the main door, only to find that the _hentai_ horde, without Kuno, was waiting for them. The first in the line walked before Akane, then he pulled his boxing gloves off and threw them at her feet. He then bowed deeply to the long haired girl.

"I'm sorry for my behavior, Tendo Akane." He then turned towards the school "I apologize to all of the girls of Furinkan High for the way I have behaved for the last three weeks."

One by one the boys came before Akane, each throwing his weapon at the slowly growing pile. It included hockey stick, weights, chess set and a rubber duck amongst other junk. Every single one of them apologized as well. Then the entire group bowed to Ranma.

"We want to thank your cousin, Lotion, for showing us the error of our ways." all of them shouted together.

"I'm sure she'll be impressed, when I'll tell her what you just did." Ranma didn't return the bow "But the road to forgiveness will be long, this is just the first step. You will have to work hard to regain respect of any girl."

Akane smiled, the _hentai_ horde has been finally crushed. It marked the end of an era in Furinkan High School.

 **XXX**

The pair of young martial arts were returning back home. They didn't do it like normal teenagers. Usually young people walk, or run and certainly not bounce around like a pair of loose neutrons, looking for an occasion to start a chain reaction. Akane really enjoyed the game Ranma prepared for her. The boy was always close to her grasp, but fast enough to avoid her. He could be much quicker than that but he was slowing himself down, just enough to push Akane to be faster and not to discourage her. Kami-sama, it was working, Akane saw how much her speed and balance improved from that simple game. The kids continued to play they parkour tag, all the way home.

In another part of Nerima a pair of workers were busy unloading a large pallet of heavy water bottles.

"Come on, Jin ! The boss will kill us if we don't finish on time." One of them shouted. They almost lost their job after loosing that cactus yesterday "Jin ! _Baka_ ! You dropped one bottle !" Indeed one of large bottles started to roll up down the road, catching to a slope and gaining speed. Few seconds later it came to a ramp and got launched well into air, where a large eagle dropped on it, shredding the plastic, unloading its contents right on the head of Ranma.

"Now, just great !" The girl sighed, stopping their game to pick up her thermos "Really smart, Saotome ! I forgot to refill it this morning after changing to a boy. Akane, you know where we can find some hot water ?"

"Sure, Dr. Tofu clinic is just around a corner."Akane turned around "Huh ?" She heard a strange sound, like if someone was banging his head against a lamppost. It was probably nothing.

The pair came to a clinic, "Acupressure, Acupuncture, Moxibustion" sign could be seen right next to an entrance, Akane went inside, while Ranma waited. He suddenly felt a bony hand on his shoulder, the boy turned around to see a skeleton. Ranma jumped out of her, few sizes to large, shoes and clung to the sign.

"Oh. Pardon me." The skeleton was held by a man in his early thirties. He was quite handsome, brown haired and was wearing a pair of large glasses "Nothing to worry about, dear. This is just Betty, my skeleton."

"Here the hot water R..." Akane, holding a kettle, just came from the clinic to find Ranma standing next to Dr. Tofu "Um... Good evening" She bowed.

"Good evening to you." Dr Tofu bowed as well, clacking with the skeleton he was holding "You haven't been by lately. No new injuries ?"

"No. I haven't been doing anything... Umm sorry Doctor, but well be late for the dinner. Come on Lotion." She dragged Ranma along with her.

The disappeared around a corner, where Ranma used the kettle to change back into a boy.

Dr. Tofu stood there for a second, looking after the the pair. He had a strange expression on his face, like he just saw something very important. His glasses then fogged up and he started to carefully study his surroundings.

"Anybody there ?" He asked, still taxing the alleyway with his eyes.

Peorth was standing few steps away from him, at the moment very glad that she begun to take additional steps in masking her presence. After being spotted both by the old ghoul and Kasumi she decided not to relay on her veil alone and now incorporated a genuine invisibility spell on top of that. Now it was this man... There was something strange about him, he had no trace of presence at all. After a second he shrugged his arms and went back into the clinic and the goddess floated again after her ward.

"So that was Dr. Tofu ? Martial arts master too, isn't he ?" Ranma asked as their started to walk back home.

"How could you tell ?" Akane asked, starting to run after her _sensei._

"By the way he sneaked on me... like he erased all trace of his existence." Ranma started to dodge the incoming Akane, as they returned to their game

"He's very good. He's taken care of my injuries, since I was little... I used to have a crush on him." Akane admitted, after finishing a sweep that Ranma deftly dodged.

"Used to ? You have a new one ?" Ranma asked.

Akane just smiled. Peorth laughed. Poor, clueless boy, he didn't know what he was getting into.

 **XXX**

Getting back from school, eating another wonderful dinner made by Kasumi, doing homework, then sparring with Akane. Day like every other, he could really get accustomed to this. The Tendo's were really nice to him and he felt like he fitted right here, like this was a good place to be. It was a very taxing day, yet somehow he just couldn't fall asleep. Something was hanging heavily over him. Ranma left his futon, opened a window and dragged himself on the roof, to look at the stars. After just a few minutes he heard a voice.

"Perhaps you could help me a bit, Ranma-kun."

"Kasumi-san ?" He found the eldest of the three sisters, looking from a window, he quickly helped her to get on to the roof.

"Looking at the stars, Ranma-kun ?" She asked as she sat behind him.

"Yeah, It helps me to think." Ranma turned his gaze towards the universe above him. He didn't note that Kasumi made some strange gesture with her hand just behind him, tracing a line of mana and sub vocalizing an incantation of a confession spell, all while winking towards the goddess "When I'm here I can look up there, and see all these stars, each being a sun just like ours. Maybe somewhere up in the sky there is another boy, who turns into a girl every time hes splashed with water... or liquid methane. Perhaps he comes to watch the void as well, wondering if he is the only one with weird problems."

"Like your father leaving you here ?" Kasumi probed the problem that kept gnawing the young boy.

"Pops ? That's funny, Kasumi-san, somewhere along the way I've stopped to actually see him as my father. After what he put me through, the insane training, _Neko-ken_... Don't even ask about that... all these crap about being weak like a girl he kept feeding me." Ranma opened himself, pouring everything he held inside "I've seen what he was doing, stealing, conning, manipulating people around him. He never worked, all food we ever got was the one he either stole, or one he sold me for. For Kami-sama sake, I'm engaged to more girls than I can count, he even stole dowry from Ukyo ! He sold me to Daikoku family for a bowl of rice, only to steal me back." Tears appeared in his eyes "You know what scares me the most ? If it wasn't for the _Jusenkyo_ trip and all I learned from Kuh Lohn I would be growing to be just like him..."

"But ?" Kasumi pushed the boy a bit more, he was in a need to cleanse himself, or it would continue to eat him.

"I don't understand why I'm missing him Kasumi-san !" Ranma shouted, finally giving to his tears. She gathered the boy into a hug, as he started to cry.

"Don't worry, Ranma-kun." Kasumi kept hugging him, allowing the tears to turn into a sob "Tears are like rain, they cleanse. They say fire can cleanse but I know what works even better. Learning how to forgive."

"Forgive ?" Ranma asked, with a silent whisper, fighting the tears down.

"Ranma-kun, forgive your father for he is just a fool." She smiled with a confidence of a girl who had to grow up very fast, to fill the emptiness left after her sisters mother died "Know that, however misguided he is, Uncle Genma loves you. Deep down, under all he has done, you still hold love for your father."

For a long moment there was nothing else in the universe, other than a sobbing boy and the woman holding him.

"Thanks, Kasumi-san" Ranma cleared last of his tears with a back of his hand " I fell... lighter, somehow."

"No problem, Ranma-kun." Once again Kasumi smiled "If you ever have a problem you can just come to me. You are a part of my family. Now If you could help to get back in to the house..."

Ranma returned to his room, after helping Kasumi. He crawled back to his futon. The dark haired boy yawned. Part of a family... it sounded nice...

Peorth went after Kasumi, slowly floating in the air of an early night. She was impressed by the young woman, she did something important for Ranma, something she never could, nor even ever perceived.

"Kasumi..." She closed to the girl "What you've done for him... How can I thank you ?"

"Don't mention it, Peorth-sama. Ranma is a part of my family." Kasumi smiled. There was something in it, that made Peorth remember another girl, able to smile like that. The young girl was so similar to Belldandy.

"I wonder, Kasumi... You really aren't a member of the Celestial Host ?" The goddess asked.

"I would certainly know if I were one." The young woman laughed silently "Thank you, it feels nice to be seen as an angel. Really I'm just the good girl I've always wanted to be. Goodnight Peorth-sama."

Kasumi was still standing, even after the goddess left. She called her a member of the Celestial Host... If you'd only knew goddess... If you'd only knew...

 **XXX**

Time goes fast when you're in a good company. Before he could even see it, it was already Sunday. It was the day Kuno set up a duel with Lou Xion. From the early morning the amazon warrior was preparing herself. Weapons were checked, ready to be displaced into the darkness. She ate only a light, for her that is, breakfast. The only problem were clothes.

"I'm sorry, Lotion, but I just couldn't get your silk clothes ready. After that accident with a gorilla, koi pond and a gallon of milk, they need a dry cleaning and they won't be ready till next week." Kasumi apologized for a hundredth time.

"I understand Kasumi-san... It's just that I don't have any other girl clothes to fight in... I'll need to borrow something from Akane..." Ranma slipped all into a girl mode.

"Have no fear ! Your sis is here !" Akane shouted as she came into the room Ranma was using. She carried a large wooden box. It was signed Col-chan "I've found something just for you !" She opened a box to reveal something blue and Chinese styled. It was a navy blue _quipao_ with golden trim. Cut from both sides it would allow for easy movement. There was also a large, white sash, two spiked arm-guards and a pair of white woman combat boots inside.

"Whoa ! Akane ! Were did you find those ?" Nabiki shouted picking the the Chinese styled dress "These is absolutely wonderful ! A pity it's to small for me, but it should be just about right for Lotion. Again, where did you find this"

"On attic." Akane said "It was hidden behind that pile of old dusty woman underwear Kasumi made me burn last summer."

Lou Xion was standing there, holding the dress, next to herself, staring at the mirror in her room.

"Stop daydreaming and start dressing, you have a duel in one hour." Akane started "Kasumi and Nabiki _onee-chan_ , out of here, it is my duty as a shieldsister to help Lotion." She pushed her sisters out of the room.

Few minutes later Lou Xion of _Joketsuzoku_ left her room, now dressed in a _quipao_ Akane found for her. The thing looked like it was cut just for her. It fitted perfectly with her figure, forming ideally around her firm, full breasts. The white sash was placed along her waspish waist, making her even more hourglass than usually. The form fitting black sport tights that Akane picked up for her got ideally along the rest of dress, both accenting her slender legs and creating an interesting contrast with the white combat boots. She started to walk down the stairs.

"Kami-sama above, Lotion..." Nabiki suddenly pulled her head up and caught her nose "Sorry for a moment..." She quickly ran to the bathroom.

"Whoa ! Did I just gave a nosebleed to Nabiki ?" Lou Xion blinked in a surprise.

"I'll talk with her about it later." Kasumi blinked herself, she never suspected her sister of having any ideas about girls "Right now, Lotion, you look ready to kill and you'll be doing it with style !" Kasumi turned her, newly gained, sister around "If Kuno won't pass with a nosebleed fountain when he sees you, that's official, he's gay."

Akane and Lou Xion made their way towards the school, leaving a trail of lying men, several crashed cars and marriage proposals. The girl in the Chinese dress was a very effective weapon.

The second field of Furinkan was empty this Sunday. It was a cold morning and wind caused her _quipao_ to flap around. Lou Xion was standing on a soccer field, waiting for her opponent. She was freezing in these weather, noting that her female form was getting cold way faster than when being a boy. Akane was sitting a bit further away, the way her friends dress kept flapping on the wind made her close to a nosebleed herself. Finally Lou Xion spotted her opponent. Kuno arrived, dressed in his _kendogi_ , as usual.

"So you have come..." He started, taxing the girl, then he suddenly turned away from her "Sorry for a moment... how do you stop this thing ? Kami-sama above, I'll need a transfusion... A noble son of Kuno family should not react this way..." He turned again, this time with a handkerchief stuffed into each nostril "So you have came..." He started again, but the voice he produced with blocked nose caused both Lou Xion and Akane to erupt into a fit of laughter.

"Bwahaha... Kami-sama above I can't hold it... He just... Bwahaha... speaks like Donald Duck... on helium..." Spasms of laughter made both girls fight for each breath as they rolled on the ground.

After a good minute or so Lou Xion managed to stop laughing and gather herself. One thing was good, she wasn't freezing anymore. Kuno pulled out handkerchiefs in meantime and his nose bleed finally stopped.

"So you have come." Third time's a charm "My cactus borne dryad !"

"You don't learn quick, do you, pal ?" Lou Xion snickered "I'm no dryad. I'm an amazon warrior, Lou Xion of _Joketsuzoku_." She prepared herself for combat "Well ? Where's your sword, huh ?"

"Heh. I have no need of a sword." He called, smiling in, what he believed, charming way.

"Yeah ? Pretty confident I guess." She could admit him that, before pounding him into the ground.

"Confident enough... To give you..." He threw something towards Lou Xion "...this !"

The gorgeous girl in a Chinese dress caught a bouquet of red roses. Kuno started to turn.

"I love you." He said, starting to walk away, when the bouquet hit him in the back of his head. Since Lou Xion added a half of a brick inside, it was super effective.

"Just who do you think you are ? Kami-sama's gift to all the woman ?" She called, gathering all reserves of feminine _yin ki_ , getting into the mode of a righteous fury "You think yourself as _Samurai_ ? No such chance, you're just pathetic ! A ten year old girl from my village would beat you ! A weakling like you is not worthy of even declaring his love to an amazon warrior !"

"Then tell me, my Chinese Lily." He called, from the depths of his delusional mind "How can I understand you, where would I need to journey to learn who you are ?"

"You would need to travel to..." She smiled, it was an evil grin "... _Jusenkyo_ !"

 **XXX**

A middle-aged, bald man was sitting, writing something. He was very busy, pearls of sweat formed on his forehead. It took a massive amount of intellectual effort from him to form a new plan. So far every time he made plans he had some assistance, usually in a form of a bottle of _sake_.

Alcohol was with him when he decided to try the _Neko-ken_ training on his son. He was drunk the night he signed the _seppuku_ pledge. He was drunk the moment when he became His student. Even when both he and Soun decided on getting their, yet unborn children engaged it was over a bottle.

Perhaps it was from the fact that he really put effort into it. Or perhaps from the fact he was sober the newest plan he wrote down looked... He really didn't like that plan...

But it was the best plan he came up with in his life. The Master won't even know what will hit him. He just hoped he won't need to go with it...

Somewhere a storm was gathering...

[Author Notes:

Here it is. Finally pulled another chapter together. The Kasumi and Ranma on a roof scene took forever, I rewrote it seven times and it's still not what I would want. I've decided to send Kuno to _Jusenkyo_. This will be funny.

Great thanks for all the reviews.

Next stop, The Eternal Lost Boy joins the cast, Akane finds a pet and P-Chan will discover certain important house rules.]


	7. Enter the Piglet

**Ranma 1/2: A Ward of a Goddess**

 **Disclaimer:** The following is a fan written parody. Ranma ½ belongs to Rumiko Takahashi, Viz Media, Studio Deen, Shogakukan and Madman Entertainment. Oh My Goddess! belongs to Kōsuke Fujishima, Kodansha, Dark Horse Comics and Madman Entertainment. Other IP used have their respective owners as well, I do not own characters and events and they are used without permission. Support the official release, and don't sue me.

[Cold Opening:

It was Christmas. Or birthday. Or Deadpoolvania national holiday. He wasn't not sure what it was, but it was great. A whole horde of thugs, that no one would miss. It was his horde and he could go and kill or maim and generally do whatever he wanted with them (After checking how the thugs looked he strongly decided to limit himself to killing and maiming, a man has to have his standards).

A dark haired, petite girl stopped next to him, despite his best efforts at hiding (you try hiding wearing red spandex).

"Let me guess." She said "Another superhero ?"

"I'm super, aye." Deadpool said, pulling something special for all careful readers "Opinions differ on whether I'm a hero."

"So who are you ?" The girl asked again "Captain something ? Mr Motormouth ?"

"I'm Deadpool..." The merc with a mouth said "...just Deadpool... and you are ?"

"I think you can call me..." She thought for a second on a fitting name "...Nerima Wrecking Crew."

"Sounds cool." He admitted, nice name, had a good ring to it "How does that work ?"

"Just watch." She pointed towards the thugs and then the girl begun..

The petite Japanese girl did exactly what advertised, she wrecked them. It was... beautiful. Deadpool A gave her full 10.0. Deadpool B gave 9.8, he had to deduct something for the lack of guns. He liked guns. Deadpool C gave 7.0, but he was the grumpy Romanian judge, they are hard to impress. Deadpool D gave a deep fried watermelon on a stick, it was like shouting "it's over eight thousand !" as far as he was concerned.

"So, what do you think ?" The girl asked once she finished with the last of the thugs.

"Marry me !" Deadpool shouted.

Ranma turned her face towards the camera. Casting a glance toward Wade, who was giving her horns.

"Previously on Ranma and Deadpool" said her sweet voice.

"That should be Deadpool and Ranma, first I'm a guy, more people know me, D comes before R in..." Deadpool interrupted.

"What does it take to shut you up ?" Ranma asked him.

"You could try kissing." Deapool answered.

Thump !

"I can fly !" Wade shouted as he began his ascension towards the stratosphere...

Lou Xion helped Akane to deal with the _hentai_ horde, but the girl caught attention of one Tatewaki Kuno. After the delusional boy proclaimed his love for the amazon warrior he was sent by her to find _Jusenkyo_. Genma left Ranma in the Tendo house and the boy continues to train Akane. No it's time for Ranma to answer an important question. Is he prepared to die ?]

 **Chapter 6**

 **Enter the Piglet**

It was a conspiracy. Ryoga Hibiki was sure of it. He never was lost. It was the world around that couldn't keep it's correct place and moved around so he never could get where he wanted too. The truth was that the bandana clad boy was always lost. Even a closet presented a difficult trial for his skewered sense of direction. For the last week he tried to find Furinkan High School. He missed it three times, ran through Tokyo four times and visited Melbourne, again. But one thing was sure, eventually Ryoga always reached his destination, he usually managed that as soon as the Fate was done with him. It was exactly what Ryoga suspected, a real conspiracy. He's lack of direction took him not where he wanted to be, but where he should be. So in the week he tried to reach Furinkan High he saved a village from a boar attack, held two demonic invasions, stopped a bank robbery and he helped a young Australian metal band in raising money for their foster home. Now that the Fate was done with him, for a while at least, Ryoga could finally find his destination.

Now he was standing before a gate. It looked like a school. Ryoga grabbed the first student that he saw.

"You." He said, once he held Kentaro, the unlucky member of the hockey club "Where's Furinkan High School ?"

"Standing before it, buddy." He said, leaving fast. He really should think about changing schools. Kentaro heard that Juuban Municipal High School was a very peaceful one.

Excellent. So finally he was here. Now Ryoga had to wait for Ranma. Not moving even an inch was a good idea too.

Ranma and Akane were leaving the school. Both of them in a good mood. Akane has mastered the basic meditation and Ranma begun to drill her in the more complex Anything Goes _kata_. Soon he would be able to start training her in roof hopping and when her speed would be up to it, perhaps even _Kachū Tenshin Amaguriken_ if he'd receive a permit from Kuh Lohn. Running together the two teens stopped when they heard an incoming missile above them.

"Ranma Saotome !" The missile shouted "Prepare to die !" Holding an umbrella in his hand Ryoga landed right between the boy and his student, who both managed to dodge jumping away. A large crater showed right where the strange weapon hit the ground.

"Someone you know ?" Akane asked, taxing the newcomer. He was about the same age as Ranma and she. Tall and muscular. He was wearing a yellow shirt and black pants. His unkempt hair was held by a tiger stripped bandana... no wait, not one bandana, it looked like at least five or six tied together. The boy had a certain kind of rustic charm in him, partially enforced by evident need to have a bath as indicated by his smell. He actually was handsome in a certain, rough way. Akane also noted that he had strangely large fangs.

"You haven't changed, Ranma." The boy that Akane was taxing with her eyes said in a mocking voice "You're still good at running away."

The next few moments were taken by Ranma, and Peorth, standing next to each other, trying heavily to remember who that boy was. First they held their fingers next to their nose, then both of them switched to holding their hands next to their templates, finally switching to a more classical, fist next to chin thinking pose. The goddess was first to hit her fist into her open palm. She stretched the rules a tiny bit to whisper a sound that only Ranma could hear and said the boys name.

"Wait I remember !" Ranma shouted mimicking Peorth earlier gesture "You're the guy I waited three days to have a fight with ! You're Hibiki Ryoga !"

"Yes ! You might have waited three days." The boy with the unkempt hair said, getting angry "But on the fourth day, when I came, you had already ran away !"

"Ryoga-kun, can I ask you one thing ?" Ranma pondered on it "It was, kinda five hundred yards between your house and the lot where we were to duel. All you had to do was follow a perfectly straight main road."

"Do you think I went for a casual stroll for those four days ?" The boy shouted as visions of places flashed through his head. Beach, Snowy mountains, forgotten monasteries, fourth moon of Yavin, interiors of a Borg Cube. The last two he saw in a cinema he accidentally turned in, but they were still visions of places, so they counted "I suffered to meet with you !"

"Bad sense of direction. Very Bad, Very bad indeed." Some of the students confirmed from around. The news that Ranma was under attack started to gather attention. While no one saw Ranma fighting yet the rumor was that the boy was at least as good, if not better, than Lotion.

"So you've come to finish our fight ?" Ranma asked.

"Finish our fight ?" The boy prepared his umbrella "This is about Revenge !" He threw his strange weapon towards Ranma. The young martial artist didn't even flinch avoiding it with an economical move. The umbrella went like a spinning top, right back towards Ranma, causing several students to seek shelter, Once again Ranma dodged the weapon, without even moving from his place.

"No matter what it takes, Ranma." Ryoga said as he caught his deadly weapon "I will destroy your happiness !"

Then he turned, for a purely dramatic effect. He turned back to say something, but he was already halfway towards Osaka.

 **XXX**

Back at home Ranma and Akane continued training in _dojo_. Despite what happened he was her _sensei_ now and he wouldn't neglect his, or at the moment her job. Today they were practicing weapon styles, _baston_ against mallet, which meant she was now dressed in Lotion's silk blouse and pants.

"So actually, what did you do to him ?" Akane asked as they took a short break in a newest _kata_ she was learning.

"Actually I have no idea." Ranma said, at the moment he was just training in female form, not slipped into it completely "All I remember was this bread feud we had. It was back when I went to all boys school..."

"Boys School ?" Akane said in surprise, trying to imagine what effect would that petite girl cause in boys school. Then she felt an urge to whack herself with her own mallet "Right ! That was before China ! Silly me, please continue."

"So as I was saying, before someone interrupted." Ranma returned to the story "Me and Ryoga fought over the last bread. It was like a tradition in the school, last bread would be thrown and the one who caught it would get it for free. Needless to say I won. There was curry bread, there was also chow mein bread, croquette bread, melon bread, meat bread, seaweed bread, _o_ _melette du fromage_...

"That's _omelette au fromage_ Ranma." Akane automatically corrected. Daddy insisted that each of them should learn French, but never explained why "There is cheese omelet bread ?"

"No, I think that time it was just a cheese omelet." Ranma tried to remember.

"I've seen how Ryoga acted. I don't really think this is about bread feud." Akane thought about it. While she was talking about boys, who in her opinion, with one exception so far, were absolutely stupid it looked like something far more serious "Maybe he took you leaving the fight very seriously ?"

"It's not like I left the fight. I would wait a week if needed." Ranma said "On the end of the third day Pops sneaked on me. When I woke up we were already halfway to China."

"Whatever it was I think you'll find out sooner, or later." Akane said, returning to her _kata_.

"Knowing Ryoga it will be later." Ranma said "Now don't move your hips this way and try not to look where you want to hit, you're telling too much about you moves..."

A few days later Kasumi brought a letter.

"This is for you, Ranma, from a boy named Ryoga." She said handling it to Ranma.

"Oh look, it's a challenge." Ranma said, putting the letter on the table "What a surprise !"

"Ranma. He set up a date for the match... it was... yesterday ?" Akane said, looking at the letter herself.

"It's Ryoga we are speaking about. He has worlds worst sense of direction, It will be a miracle if he gets here in three months." Ranma said picking the envelope the letter came in "He mailed it from... Does any one know where Cicely is ?"

 **XXX**

It was a week later that Ryoga found his was back to Furinkan High School. In that short time he had won a dog sled race and caught two criminals. But once again he was where he wanted to be, finally. He was also standing before his opponent. Already an audience was gathering and Nabiki was running around, selling tickets and taking bets. Somehow a battle was changed into a fair. Since it was Nerima this was to be expected. The middle Tendo sister even had a stall that was selling Ranma and Ryoga action figures.

Ranma actually wanted to try to apologize to Ryoga and bring a piece of every bread he had ever eaten as a compensation. He was ruled four to one that it was a dumb idea. So instead he just waited.

"So you're here Ryoga. You took your time." He said standing with his hands crossed "You sure we can't just try to be friends and have whatever makes you so angry at me pass ?"

"I have come to get my revenge !" The bandana clad boy shouted. Ranma considered standing a little bit further away "Because of you I have seen Hell !" He drew his umbrella and prepared for an attack.

In a second he launched forward, thrusting with his weapon at an incredible speed. Ranma jumped a bit away. They both launched high into air where Ranma dodged yet another attack.

"Seen Hell ? What are you talking about ?" Ranma said still standing really casually.

"Do you truly believe.." Ryoga said, preparing to throw his umbrella "...That something so mere as simple words could convey the depth of my despair !"

"Everyone stay away from him !" Someone shouted from the audience "He's beginning to talk like Kuno ! This may be contagious !"

The umbrella was once again thrown. It was a far more accurate and faster than the attacks used earlier and Ranma barely dodged it. He gave an opening Ryoga needed. He pulled one of his bandanas and latched it to Ranma's wrist. The umbrella continued it's flight and after a few moments hit the earth, with a loud crash.

Two martial artists continued to trade blows at a close range. The fight was getting vicious. Akane was more and more worried, it looked like Ryoga was a close match for Ranma. She noted the umbrella nearby, she moved to it and tried to pick up. Even with both hands she was barely able to lift it.

"What this is made from ? Depleted uranium ?" She dropped it back "Ranma ! Stay out of his reach." She shouted. Too late however as at this very moment Ryoga scored a direct hit to Ranma's belly.

The gender challenged martial artist didn't even faze.

"Sorry, you tried to pat me ?" he asked looking at his opponent who was checking his fist surprised.

Ryoga dropped the bandana he was using as a shackle. He moved to one of nearby trees. He performed a test punch, noting to his satisfaction that the tree fell over. He returned to Ranma and tried another punch, again it was as effective as trying to shoot Gojira with a BB gun. He moved back to another tree and punched it again. The tree fell over. Ryoga looked at Ranma puzzled.

"You can give up, Ryoga" Ranma snickered with an arrogant smile on his face "I've trained under ancient Chinese Master."

"Ah." Ryoga shifted his stance, his hands now forming praying mantis hooks "Good thing I did that too." The eternal lost boy attacked again, this time with just his two fingers. Ranma again stoically took the hit and his left hand slumped.

"What ? How did you do that ?" Ranma asked trying to regain feeling in his arm.

"Mantis style. It doesn't matter how durable you are if I can hit your pressure points directly." Ryoga said attacking again.

Ranma tried to dodge him, but with half of his body frozen it was not easy. Ryoga continued to press on. The only edge Ranma had now was his superior speed and footwork. He danced between the attacks, trying to find a pattern or a weak point. His opponents attacks were fast and they could deal with his enhanced durability easily. But Ryoga was attacking with straight, quick jabs. If he could keep to push his hands aside the attacks would not connect.

Ranma begun to sweep Ryoga attacks with his right arm. Every time his opponent tried another jab Ranma's hand would push it aside. Slowly he was regaining footing and in a moment the Anything Goes practitioner was able to go on an offensive. Pushed back Ryoga was no longer so effective. The eternal lost boy tried to gain some distance by jumping backwards, but this quickly proved to be a mistake, Ranma's style specialized in midair combat, he followed Ryoga with a powerful flying kick. They cleared right over the fence and the powerful attack carried them right into a water fountain. Peorth shut it down, just a moment before they smashed it.

Ryoga and Ranma broke their fight. Saotome tested his left arm a few times, finally feeling it again.

"Nice trick you've got there, Ryoga. But I got figured it out." He snickered.

"That wax on, wax off trick won't save you in a long time." Ryoga took a deep breath "Mantis Style Secret Technique: _Zan'ei_ !" The Eternal lost boy dashed forward, becoming a blur. Faster than Ranma could hope to dodge or block he moved past him. The Anything Goes practitioner felt six hits done at _Amaguriken_ speed. Ryoga stopped several steps behind his opponent and turned to find that he hit all the weak spots and Ranma was completely paralyzed. He pulled some of his bandanas and started to spin them.

"Excellent !" He laughed "Now you will die !"

Someone threw an umbrella on him, and Ryoga had to dodge the javelin like missile. This was the distraction needed as a blur jumped in and gathered paralyzed Ranma.

"Doing what you're good at ?" Ryoga shouted as he started to run after that blur "Running away !"

As much as he tried to follow Ryoga found a single problem, the very moment he lost the target from his eyes he already was, well... lost.

Some distance away Akane finally finished jumping. She used every single skill developed while training with Ranma to gain as much distance as possible. The raven haired girl stopped on a roof, holding her _sensei_ very tightly.

"Whew, I think I've lost him, you okay Ranma ?" Then she noted that she was hugging him. Akane jumped away, blushing a little "Sorry about that. I saw you paralyzed and I've just reacted..."

"It's okay, Akane." Ranma said, realizing that he could move again. That short moment when the girl hugged him... It was so nice.

"No, it was your fight ! I shouldn't have interfered." Akane felt guilty.

"That last move from Ryoga caught me completely flatfooted. If it wasn't for your help I would be done for. We are shieldsisters... even if I'm a shieldbrother at the moment, we should always count on each other." Ranma said while moving closer to her "I've underestimated him, that move and what he did next. I've definitely felt it, he fully intended to kill me." Ranma shivered, the way Ryoga said last words... it still made him feel cold "This has to be something really, like real. No one would be so keen on a revenge over a breed or a missed duel. I've must have done something really bad to him... I don't even know what it could be ! I kinda haven't seen Ryoga since I traveled to China..."

"Wait..." Akane had an idea "What if Ryoga followed you to China..."

"Kami-sama" They've looked at each other as they suddenly understood what could draw Ryoga to such extremes "He went to _Jusenkyo_ !"

 **XXX**

This was a new place for Ranma. He visited a library for the first time in his life. Right now he and Akane were sitting by one of the tables, digging through what manuals they could find. Public libraries might not seem to be the best place to seek knowledge about obscure Chinese assassination techniques, yet this was not your typical sanctuary of knowledge. There are some libraries that are unique, they have an orangutan for a librarian for example. Nerima public library had a whole section dedicated to martial arts training manuals.

"Okay here are two more, Ranma." Akane handed him two another manuals "Got anything ?"

"Not much Akane. So far all we know that Ryoga is using Norther Prying Mantis Style." Ranma closed his eyes for the moment "This is a bit of surprise, from what I remember he was as subtle as a sledgehammer. Mantis Style is not what I would expect from him. Though from what I've seen from this manuals he doesn't use it as it's intended, he didn't use either the complex footwork of the style nor the multitude of knee and elbow strikes. All he showed was attacking my pressure points and that secret technique."

"So what do you think ?" Akane asked while looking through one of the manuals "Does he know only a few tricks, or is Ryoga saving more, not showing all of his abilities ?"

"I'm afraid it's the latter..." Ranma closed the manual he was looking through "I don't know how to counter first thing he used and he might have more... I'm kinda... don't know, impressed by Ryoga ? I wish Elder Kuh Lohn was here, she would have an idea on how to fight and counter this move."

For the next three hours both martial artists continued to dig through the multitude of books and manuals. It was a hard job, Ranma actually set a few books aside to borrow them and practice several moves he found interesting. But they still didn't have what they were looking for.

"I don't really think we can find that technique in a manual..." Ranma had enough, his eyes were close to liquifying and he had a terrible headache " We would need some kind of a secret scroll..."

"Wait !" Akane shouted despite the silence sign nearby "That's it, we have to speak to the librarian. I remember there is a closed section with secret scrolls here. I was inside once with daddy."

The pair of martial artist went to find someone who could let them in.

"I'm sorry, Akane-chan." The head librarian, a men in his fifties with massive thick glasses, dressed in simple tweed blazer said "That section is closed, only a few people can enter it."

"I understand Koji-sama, but this is very important..." Akane tried to plead "I know my dad entered that section before."

"Yes, Tendo-san is one of the martial artists who have the permission to enter the vault." The librarian admitted.

"Maybe we could call Tendo _Dojo_ , perhaps if you spoke with Mr. Tendo ?" Ranma tried to join in.

"Okay, that I can do for you two." He used the phone. He talked with Soun for a while. "Tendo-san I understand, but the vault is to be used for special occasions only, even by you... You can convince me but you have to do it with one word..." The librarian heard something that made him turn pale suddenly "Of course I will let your daughter and your _dojo_ instructor in." He hanged the phone "Akane-chan, Ranma-kun, please follow me."

He led them to the basement, there was a large, metal heavy door inside. He opened it and invited the pair inside. The room was brightly lit, air conditioned and extremely dry. There was a single table in the middle and the rest was filled by several racks, each filled by carefully placed scrolls.

"This is it... I'm sorry but this is heavily against the regulations, so you can use this room only for an hour." He left them inside.

"One hour... There are so many scrolls here... We'll need a miracle." Akane looked at the array of ancient knowledge. Ranma just started to walk among the racks, hiding a smile, it was a good thing he brought his own personal miracle with him. At the entrance to the room Peorth begun to work her magic.

" _Spirit of Knowledge, come to mine aid. What is hidden shall be found_." The goddess chanted as power played around her " _Guide my ward, so he may get what he seeks_ !"

Ranma's hand moved across the racks until he found one scroll that was slightly pushed in, the boy took it and moved to the table, then he looked on what was inside. Akane sat down and took a peek at what he was holding.

"How is this even possible ?" She asked amazed "You took the first scroll and it is what we wanted to find... That's like something from a movie... or a bad fanfic."

"Dumb luck, Akane." He smiled sending a silent prayer to his guardian spirit "This is very interesting, one of the Seven Lucky Gods Martial Arts. A defensive technique that uses chopsticks. Created to defend from several other secret techniques, including _Zan'ei_ and _Kachū Tenshin Amaguriken_."

"I still find this impossible..." Akane looked at the scroll herself "To find exactly what we needed, on the first try by dumb luck alone. Someone up there must like you, Ranma"

"That's the whole joke, my dear." A whisper that she couldn't even hear followed, as Peorth laughed "Someone up there really likes Ranma and I happen to be that person."

Akane and Ranma begun to copy the contents of the scroll.

 **XXX**

The night was young and it was one of her first jobs, so she went to be as dark and stormy as possible. She wanted to leave a good impression after herself. Breaking through many layers of weather control spells Peorth placed around Nerima was not an easy task, but once this was done there was nothing to stop her. So the night gave her best, a real storm raised in pitch black darkness with lightning splitting the sky every few seconds. One had to admire what a great job she did with the rain, it was one of those that give an impression that Kami-sama finally grew bored with human antics and decided to begin a new deluge. So overall the night, despite it's young age gave a good show and hoped she would be promoted fast to a place better than Nerima. She hoped for a foggy night in London as a man with oversized scarf would fight an alien incursion or a full moon in Gotham as the caped crusader would fight crime, or an alien incursion. The night really wanted to see someone fight an alien incursion. But one has to begin somewhere so she gave her best for one boy, with an umbrella, who went towards the Tendo _Dojo_ to have his revenge.

It was on this night that Ranma awoke due to having to do something that is best described as urgent. Right as he washed his hands something sounded very strange within the tap and a spray of cold water triggered the curse. Not wanting to waste time changing back the dark haired girl just shrugged her arms and went to crawl back into her futon. She could always change back first thing in the morning. Yawning, she went back to sleep.

A short moment later someone slipped into the room. A dark shadow moved next to the futon.

"Wake up, Ranma." The shadow spoke "It's me, Ryoga, fight me." He waited for a moment but there was no reaction from the sleeping person other than the loud snoring. Ryoga decided to try a more direct approach, he grabbed Ranma's chest to shake him. The chest seemed strange.

"Why is Ranma sleeping with a pair of watermelons ?" Ryoga asked in the dark. Two thing followed First was Ryoga realizing what he was squeezing and a gush of blood exploded from his nose. The second was a shapely, slender fist that hit him right in the face.

"Eeek ! Pervert." A high pitched shriek that only female lungs were capable of producing pierced the night. Lou Xion threw one of her _baston_ to turn the lights on.

Ryoga, who was trying to stop his nose from bleeding looked at the person he squeezed. It definitely wasn't Ranma. His nemesis was a male and a jerk, not a gorgeous, petite girl with beautiful, yet very angry face, slender arms, shapely legs and generous bust that was spilling from her t-shirt. The dark haired girl was holding a pair of _baston_ in her hands. The eternal lost boy performed a very close copy of one of Saotome Anything Goes Martial Arts techniques, The Crouch of the Wild Tiger.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." He kept repeating bowing on his knees "I didn't know you would be here. I thought Ranma is using the guest room."

"You're looking for cousin Ranma ?" The dark haired girl slipped into her Lou Xion persona. It looked like Ryoga had no idea about her curse, so it would be best to continue the charade "He's out training, something about some crazy obsessed boy and assassination technique he needs to overcome." The petite girl said as she grabbed a pair of jade clips and started to put her hair into loopies "Wait... It is you ! You must be this Ryoga, you've sneaked here to kill Ranma in his sleep !"

"It's not like that." Ryoga quickly said "I wanted to challenge him for a fight. I'm again sorry... Miss ?"

"I'm Lou Xion of _Joketsuzoku."_ The girl saw that Ryoga had no idea what that meant "Chinese Amazon Tribe ?" She saw that Ryoga recognized the name "I'm Ranma's cousin and I use Tendo's hospitality from time to time."

So that beautiful girl was an amazon warrior ? _Jusenkyo_ Guide warned Ryoga not to get close to their village, according to him they were very dangerous. The girl had to be one of them and she was Ranma's cousin... Wait... The blur that rescued Ranma was definitely both feminine and dark haired and had to be a talented martial artist.

"It was you !" Ryoga pulled his umbrella "You're the girl that interrupted my duel with Ranma ! Don't you know that a duel like that is sacred ? You are now my enemy !"

Lou Xion rolled to avoid the thrust and she jumped out of the window right into the cold rain. Good thing she already was a girl, Ryoga would not learn of her curse this way. She saw a shadow jumping behind her with an open umbrella. She twisted her sticks a few times, Ryoga landed with an open umbrella, taking great care to protect himself from rain.

"Why are you so keen on this revenge, Ryoga-kun ?" The girl asked shouting through the rain.

"When Ranma ran out from our duel..." Ryoga shouted himself "...I followed him to China !"

"Ah so you did fall into one of the accursed springs when you followed him ?" It seemed that her and Akane were right, Ryoga was indeed cursed and he placed the fault on Ranma "Now you change into something when hit with cold water ?"

"Silence !" Ryoga shouted, moving for attack "I will send you to hell, where you will wait for your cousin !"

Lou Xion jumped from his attack and they started to fight in the dark. The amazon warrior had a distinct advantage, Ryoga was using his umbrella to protect himself from rain and couldn't use it as weapon, while her _baston_ worked all around him. After several exchanges Ryoga felt that the girl hit him several times.

"Looks like I'm at a disadvantage." He called through the rain "Time to end this, _Zan'ei_!"

Once again he blurred as he moved by the dark haired martial artist in an impossible speed. He finished standing behind her and felt a stabbing pain in his hand, like if it got hit by tongs. He turned in the rain to see that the amazon warrior was smiling.

"So cousin Ranma was afraid of that little trick ?" She laughed in a mocking manner, hiding the chopsticks back into the darkness "He should ask me in the first place. I would've show him how to defend from this move." She moved closer to the surprised boy "Now it's my turn for a special attack." Lou Xion then kicked one of the rain puddles sending water towards Ryoga, who quickly used his umbrella to deflect it. To late did he remember that he was using it for a reason and the rain hit him, the eternal lost boy bounced into the darkness as his curse triggered.

"Gah he's gone..." She looked into darkness wondering what she should do, try to find his cursed form in this rain ? Nah, it was dark and cold, she decided to return home. Once inside she grabbed a towel and made herself a cup of cocoa. Yawning she went back to her bed, wondering how was it possible that none of the Tendo's awoke from all this racket "I hope the _baka_ catches pneumonia." She said falling asleep again.

 **XXX**

Akane inhaled the morning air. It was fresh, humid and full of ozone. The raven haired girl stepped on the wet grass with her bare feet, it felt nice to walk like that, she used to do that often when she was a little girl. Those were good memories. The young martial artist spun a few times around in the morning air, feeling alive. Then she saw something lying in the grass next to the wall.

It was a small black piglet, with a tiger stripped bandana around it's neck. It looked to be unconscious. Akane picked it up, it was very cold, barely breathing.

"Oh dear, it must got cold during the storm." She said, hugging the poor thing "It needs some warmth." She looked at it "A bump on the head ? It must have hit the wall scared by the lightning !"

Akane went inside and placed the little animal on the table then she picked up a blanket and wrapped the animal in it. The raven haired girl went to the kitchen to heat some milk.

About five minutes later Kasumi ran into the kitchen, just in time to prevent an absolute destruction.

"Akane..." She said turning the gas down and looking at the effect of her sisters work. The milk was half brown, and half yellow and had a consistency of a jelly "Need some help ?"

"The milk is ready ?" Akane said as she returned to kitchen. She looked at what Kasumi was trying to pull out of the pot.

"Akane, what do you need milk..." Kasumi turned and then went into a squee mode "What do you have there ? Isn't it the sweetest thing in the world !" She took a look at the piglet "Feeding a piglet with cow milk is not a good idea. I think goat milk should be used, this is not a baby piglet even. This is one of those miniature pigs, or maybe even a pygmy hog I saw a program about in TV."

"What do they eat ?" Akane asked hugging the dead cold thing to her bosom.

"Sweet potatoes ?" Kasumi guessed "I know, I'll go and call Mister Unryu, his a pig farmer, he should know more about it."

"Sis, where's Ranma ?" Akane asked "I could use his help with this poor animal."

"He went out a moment ago as a girl." Kasumi said as she left the kitchen "Something about feeling bad, leaving someone in the rain and a night attack."

Outside Lou Xion was feeling guilty. She shouldn't have left Ryoga in this weather, Kami-sama alone knows what did he turn into. The girl already found his backpack and clothes, but in two different places. The only animal that she found nearby was a dog, but as she emptied a thermos it didn't change back. She continued to look all around, hoping that nothing happened to poor Ryoga, she really should have tried to find him during the night.

Back in the Tendo _Dojo_ Ryoga slowly opened his eyes. Last thing he remembered was the rain and the dark, He tried to run away, but hit the wall. The eternal last boy tried to stand up, but his four legs betrayed him. He slowly drew some air through his snout. Ryoga discovered that he was still a pig, he slowly looked up and saw an angel. A girl, with long black hair was looking at him.

"You're waking up !" She shouted happy "You're going to be okay, don't worry there." She took and hugged the poor creature "Kasumi, P-chan woke up !"

"So you've already named it ?" Kasumi picked the piglet up and checked something "It's a boy piglet. P-chan ?"

"P stands for pig, and chan because he is so small and cute" Akane smiled, lightening the room like a hundred watt light bulb. The piglet's heart melted like a snowflake on a summer day.

"He seems to be small now. According to Mr. Unryu a pig like that will grow and reach about sixty to one hundred pounds, Akane." Kasumi said giving the pet back to her sister "He should be fed a mixture of sweet potatoes, rice and barley, allowed to have a plenty of water and an easy access to a large area with grass. Pigs are rather clean animals, they prefer to carry their needs outside and can be trained."

"So can I keep him ?" Akane asked. In this house Kasumi's voice was the final one.

"We shall see about it, first let's see that we take care of that bump." Kasumi said, taking a first aid kit and placing it on a table.

Three hours later Ranma decided that there was no hope of finding Ryoga as after all that time he was surely somewhere in Timbuktu already. He was coming back as a boy, despite going out as a girl. It involved a boar and an exploding boiler. Day like any other, though it was the first time he had an accident with hot water. Good thing he went out in rather unisex clothes. He didn't want to think what a change would cause to that blue _quipao_.

"I'm home !" He shouted as he walked in. Ranma entered the main room to find that Akane was siting with a piglet on her lap, busy playing with the animal.

"Hi, Ranma, look what I found !" The girl happily presented her pet. Ryoga immediately started to go all 'Bwee' and tried to jump out of her arms onto Ranma "Weird, he doesn't seem to like you. Must be something about two males. Bad P-chan, bad."

"He looks strangely familiar..." Ranma said. Behind Akane Peorth was holding a large poster with entire, very graphical explanation. It included a very good drawing of the night battle, a one detailed account of Ryoga's sudden disappearance and another two pictures, one with Ryoga and a second with the piglet, both with rather large, very red arrows pointing at the bandanas. Of course Ranma and no one else could see it, with made it a wasted effort, but it's the idea that counts "Maybe he's someone's lost pet. You should check the local newspaper !" Peorth just face palmed, sometimes Ranma was just so clueless.

"You might be right, Ranma." Akane admitted, the idea didn't cross her mind "I know, I'll get out to check it. Could you do something for me and give P-chan a bath ?"

"Sure, Akane." Ranma took the piglet from her and went to the bathroom "Could you stop trying to take my eyes out, P-chan ?"

Ranma filled the furo with hot water, there was no point to risk another accident. Then he grabbed the squirming piglet and tossed him in. Peorth begun to count three... two... one...

"Ryoga ?" shouted Ranma as the eternal lost boy took his original form "Oops."

"Ranma !" You will now die !" Shouted Ryoga, jumping out of the the bath, only to be hit by a stream of cold water from the shower knob Ranma grabbed.

"What am I supposed to do with you ? He asked "Maybe we can talk ? If you promise you won't attack me again I'll drop you again into that bath." The piglet nodded and Ranma dropped him again.

"Okay, now lets talk, Ryoga-kun." He said as soon as his nemesis changed again.

"You can't tell anything to Akane." Ryoga said immediately "It would be against the warrior's code to reveal my weakness to her."

"So you like Akane ? You don't mind being a pet ?" Ranma asked surprised "Okay I give an oath only if you do place yours that you will not attack me again in this house." Ryoga nodded, so he continued "On the name of Apate, the daughter of Nyx I give my oath."

"I give my oath as well." He didn't have any idea what the names called by Ranma meant, but they sounded really important.

"I'm home !" They heard Akane coming back, Ryoga grabbed the shower knob and promptly ran to meet Akane, leaving Ranma alone. The young martial artist smiled, it was so good to be an Amazon. Now he only had to figure out how to inform Akane without rising Ryoga's suspicions.

 **XXX**

He spend several hours trying to think how to inform his student about her pet's identity. His first idea involved sneaking into Akane's bedroom after the dark, with a kettle and changing Ryoga in the middle of the night. The more he thought about this idea the better it sounded, until he imagined himself telling it to Kuh Lohn. His imagination immediately rewarded him with a very suggestive whack from her staff.

Not having any better idea he did what he should do in the beginning. What every resident of the Tendo _Dojo_ does at some point. When in fear, when in doubt, go ask Kasumi !

"Kasumi-san, could you meet me in the _dojo_ ?" He asked the eldest of Tendo sisters "This is rather urgent."

"Sure, Ranma-kun" The young woman answered.

Several minutes later Ranma was able to begin his conspiracy. He explained the situation to Kasumi. Both who Ryoga is and what the boy was doing right now.

"So you want my help ?" Kasumi wondered for a while. Ranma said he gave his word to Ryoga, but he was ready to tell her the truth. Possibly his duty as Akane's shieldsister, or brother at the moment was more important ? "You want that little secret to go out, but you would prefer for Ryoga not to find out that you blew his cover ?"

"Well I did give him my word I wouldn't tell anyone." Ranma smiled "But I used a little Amazon trick to make the oath not count... and even if I didn't still Akane safety is important to me, she is my shieldsister and friend."

"This is rather difficult..." Kasumi pondered the problem for a few seconds " We would need to create a situation where Ryoga would blow his own little charade..." Her mind shifted to higher gears and suddenly the young woman smiled with a dangerous, wide, slasher grin "Oh my ! I just got an idea, listen to this Ranma-kun..."

Two minutes later Ranma looked at the eldest of Tendo sisters in a completely new light.

"Kasumi-san ! This plan it is..." He looked for a good word to describe it "... completely evil and fiendish !"

"Why thank you, Ranma-kun" She presented a very mischievous smile "Flattery will get you somewhere. Now wait here, I'll go to Akane, ask her to borrow me her pet for a second and send her to you, explain the plan to her."

Kasumi went back to the living room. Akane was playing with her new pet. Ranma will have a problem of holding her sister long enough to let her temper cool of a little once she learns.

"I see you'll having good time with your pet ?" She asked sitting next to her sister "Ranma was looking for you. It concerns training."

Akane stood up and walked a few steps before stopping. Her little pet didn't seem to like Ranma for some reason and it might get hurt during a sparring session.

"Sis ? Could you take care of P-chan for a moment ?" She asked.

"Of course I will." Kasumi answered "I was about to ask you to borrow that adorable creature for a while."

"Thanks ! I'll get him back once I'm finished with training." Akane went to _dojo_ , leaving P-chan with Kasumi.

The young woman took the piglet in her arms. Then she went to get a book. She sat on the couch, with P-chan on her lap. She placed the pet in such way that it wouldn't have any other choice but to look at what she was reading. The piglet's pupils shrink as he saw the title. '102 Recipes for Pork Meat Dishes'. Kasumi opened the book at random and begun to read the recipe. Once she found how much meat would be needed she first looked at the piglet then she picked it up as if weighing him. Then she placed him back on her lap and turned the page, continuing the little torture. After going through three pages she heard a primal cry of anger coming from the _dojo_ and a sound of something being smashed. She held P-chan tightly to prevent his escape and turned another page.

"This one's requires boiling ?" Kasumi said "Feh. Another one. Boiling just wouldn't work with this one."

Ryoga shivered with fear. This comment sounded like this young woman knew...

In the _dojo_ Ranma looked at one of the training dummies, or what was left from it. Akane was breathing heavily, holding the mallet so tightly that her knuckles turned white. She wasn't exactly angry, she already boiled well past that point.

"The shameless pervert !" Akane shouted "Arrgh ! I've hugged him ! I've changed with him in my room ! I even said I would sleep with him in the bed and he didn't oppose ! Explain me why I shouldn't go there and smash him into a bloody paste ?"

"Because we don't really want to kill him." Ranma explained, standing a good distance from the angry girl "Besides Kasumi has a plan. Listen to this..."

Two minutes later Akane had an evil grin on her face.

"This is just perfect !" She calmed a lot during those two minutes " _Baka_ will have either to show who he is, or..."

"There is no or..." Ranma said "Even Ryoga would not go and follow with the alternative..."

"Well time to get back." Akane turned to leave the _dojo_ "This will require all my acting skill to pull correctly."

They went back to the living room. As soon as P-chan saw Akane he jumped from Kasumi's lap and into her arms. Ranma actually saw a grimace and dangerous gleam in his student eyes and was about to do something, when he saw Akane relax.

"Here you are, P-chan ! Did you miss me ?" She asked hugging the animal, a little more tightly than usual "So, Kasumi, have you decided ? Can I keep him ?"

"Yes, you can, Akane" Kasumi had to commend her sister on her acting skill afterward "Though I do have to remind you about some rules we have about pets in our home."

"Is it really necessary ?" Akane asked, looking at her pet "I don't want to do something like that to him."

"No excuses, Akane." Kasumi's voice became stern "It needs to be done, or you can't keep him."

"Ehh, okay..." Akane followed recurrently. Ranma looked at her with respect, she played her part perfectly "I will call the clinic first thing in the morning. Time to get to bed, it's Monday tomorrow."

"Yes. One more thing." Kasumi kept her stern voice "Pet's don't sleep in normal beds here, so P-chan will have to sleep down here."

"Okay no problem, Sis." Akane placed her pet on the table "You will have to sleep here, be nice P-chan."

 **XXX**

Once again something sneaked into the guest room. A shadow went to Ranma's futon.

"Psst. Ranma. Wake up." Ryoga tried to wake him up, this time he had a flashlight with him and checked before that he had the right person. Since he didn't knew what that Chinese chick did with his clothes and backpack all he was wearing was a bathrobe.

"Wake up ! Dammit !" He shouted as his more subtle methods failed.

"Ryoga ?" Ranma said surprised "What are you doing here in the middle of the night ?"

"I need to ask something." He said sitting in front of his nemesis "What are those house rules about pets ?"

"I have no idea." Ranma said yawning "Been here just for few weeks and this is the first time this comes up. I guess if you want to continue playing Akane's pet you'll have to wait till morning."

Ryoga left, and Ranma smiled. It would be an interesting morning.

Akane came down from her room early in the morning.

"Had a good sleep, P-chan ?" She asked picking him up "Time to call the clinic." She went to the phone and dialed a number. "Hello ? Veterinary clinic ? I'd like to make appointment with Nishine-sama. Yes, I have a pet that needs to follow the procedure. No I'd be at school at that time... I could, really ? That would be wonderful, I'll be soon there." She hugged her pet "Did you hear that P-chan ? I can leave you in the clinic right away and pick you up after school and it will be done !"

"Morning, Akane" Ranma said, coming down and yawning. P-chan immediately went all 'Bwee' and again tried to attack him "I see your little pet doesn't really like me."

"Oh don't worry about him." She picked him up higher in the air "I'm sure he'll stop with that silly behavior once he'll be..." Akane waited for that moment for whole night, just to say this one word "...neutered."

Another loud 'Bwee' followed and the piglet bit her hand and started to run.

"P-chan ! Bad piglet, come back here !" Akane shouted trying to grab him "Ranma, don't let him escape !"

The piglet continued to run and bounce around. After a while he jumped to the kitchen, where Kasumi was already busy doing breakfast.

"Kasumi- _neechan_ catch him, I swear he must have understood what I was saying and is trying to escape." Akane called running inside.

Soon the two girls had him cornered. P-chan looked up and saw a kettle, perhaps his only chance, he jumped to push it on himself and immediately turned back into a human.

Ranma threw him a bathrobe.

"Ryoga ?" Akane asked, trying to play someone surprised "The whole time it was you ?" She pulled her mallet "You not only turn into a pig ! You are a shameless pervert pig ! I've changed my clothes with you watching, I've almost took you to my bed ! What was your plan ? To worm into my heart and hear all of the Ranma's secrets ?"

"Akane-chan, I can explain..." Ryoga tried to speak.

"Don't even go chan on me !" She shouted "I should have smashed you dead when I saved Ranma few days ago ! Get out, get out of my house, before I'll do something I will regret for the rest of my life !"

Ryoga ran out of the house and didn't see a laughing trio. Akane, Ranma, and Kasumi traded some high fives and commented on what they pulled.

 **XXX**

Ryoga was sitting next to a river, under a bridge, still dressed in a bathrobe. His backpack, umbrella and tent were gone somewhere, along with his clothes. Not only did he fail at getting his revenge but he's heart was broken. She was like an angel, took care of him and it turned that she was willing to make him an eunuch... and she was that girl that saved Ranma from his demise. Ryoga thought that he'll have to apologize to that Chinese girl, if he'll get a chance. But right now his biggest problem was finding where his stuff is.

"Ryoga-kun, there you are !" He heard a female voice. It was Lotion, dressed in silk blouse and pants, dragging his backpack with her. "I've been looking for you !"

"You have ?" He asked surprised .

"Yes I wanted to give you your stuff back." She dropped the heavy backpack on the ground. Ryoga looked at her amazed, she was such a tiny, petite girl and was able to carry his backpack and umbrella like it was nothing "I want to apologize. I shouldn't have used your curse against you and leave you in that rain... I feel so stupid about it... I've been looking for you ever since."

"That's, that's really nice of you..." Ryoga looked at her again, he didn't get a good chance during that night. The girl was just gorgeous, so small and so strong. Her face was nothing but angelic and her figure was perfect "I need to apologize too... I've thought it was you who interfered in my duel, but it turns it was someone else. I'm sorry, Lotion." He bowed to her.

Then his stomach growled.

"Okay, how about we find something to feedthat beast." Lou Xion smiled "My treat."

Some time later Ryoga was dressed in his stuff again and sitting along with the girl in a front of a small _yattai_ , eating to his fullest.

"Thanks, Lotion." He said stuffing another bite into himself "I haven't eaten this well for a while."

"So, Ryoga-kun, why go for revenge ?" She asked.

"It's Ranma's fault ! If he waited for our duel I wouldn't follow him to China." Ryoga explained his flawed logic to Lotion "If I could catch to him before _Jusenkyo_ I wouldn't fall into that stupid spring ! Because of him I've seen hell !"

"Hell ?" Lotion placed her elbows on the table and her head rested on her slender fists. Ryoga gulped, that made the girl look so cute.

"You don't know how it is..." He said with a distant voice "To turn into small defenseless animal. To run from predators. Try setting a fire and heating water with hooves... The worst part was when I was caught... It happened several times. I'm lucky that every single time they tried to cook me alive, so I was able to change and put some fear into them... but I was almost eaten so many times."

"Sorry I didn't knew..." Lotion plan was talking Ryoga from this revenge, but it looked like she would be out of luck. Maybe Kasumi could do it "I feel so sorry for you, Ryoga-kun, if I knew any way to cure _Jusenkyo_ curse..."

"Wait..." Ryoga just realized something "I've tracked Ranma up to _Jusenkyo_... Does he have a curse too ?"

"No." Lou Xion said "He does not have a curse." She actually wasn't lying, the change that allowed her to grow as a person and become an amazon most certainly wasn't a curse "His father on the other hand changes into a panda." She looked at the large clock above them "I'm sorry, Ryoga-kun but I need to go. I'd love to chat more, but I have a mission. See you again." She paid for Ryoga's meal and left.

Ryoga watched as she left. He cursed his own shyness, he wanted to tell her much more, to say how he felt about her...

The eternal lost boy looked into the sky. Where just a few hours he would see Akane's face there was now someone else. The face of the girl he felt in love with, Lotion of the Chinese Amazon Tribe...

[Author Notes:

Ryoga and the Mantis Style. Ranma gained his Cologne power boost much earlier in the story and Ryoga had to get one too. His master decided to cover his weakness first, hence the training in mantis style.

Real life pet pigs are usually neutered if not kept for breeding.

Akane not getting a haircut. Yes, I know it did happen in _manga_ , but this is not _manga_ , I'm saving it for a more important and symbolic occasion.

Coming up next: Dates, shrines, real estates and Amazon history.]


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